Agri terminal to help 1 lakh ryots

ERODE: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa laid the foundation for agriculture terminal market complex (TMC) at Perundurai SIPCOT through video conferencing from Chennai on Friday. Nearly 100,000 farmers in seven  districts would be benefitted. It would also create direct job opportunities for 200 persons and 800 more would get jobs indirectly. Further, the TMC would reduce the post-harvest loss of farm goods from 30 per cent to 10 per cent.Agriculture Department officials said the facility was the first of its kind in the nation being promoted under the public private partnership (PPP) on an area of 47.9 acre site at a cost of Rs 120.62 crore. Of the total cost, the National Horticulture Mission would give Rs 28 crore and agriculture marketing department would offer Rs 1 crore and the share of ryots would be Rs 3 crore.The main aim of the TMC was to mobilise flowers, vegetables and fruits from 20 collection centres, to be set up under the new initiative in Erode, Salem, the Nilgiris, Namakkal, Karur, Coimbatore and Tirupur. Of the total collection, 70 per cent would be perishable and the rest non-perishable commodities, officials said. Detailing the features of the TMC and collection centres, they said that the TMC would be provided with cold storage units. The TMC would sell the mobilised goods on the spot, through e-business. While a nominal charge would be collected from farmers to get enrolled in the firm, buyers have to deposit the amount to be transacted in a day in advance and then get their code number to quote their prices for various goods on-line. Regarding the income for the TMC, officials said a minimum commission of 3 per cent would be charged on the goods being sold. This would be the revenue for the TMC. Those goods that could not be sold through the collection centres could be brought to the cold storage unit of the TMC. As per the price quoted by traders, the goods would be sold later.  The TMC would also store the farm goods in the unit.The TMC has a capacity to handle an average 1500 tonnes of farm goods per day and each collection centre 75 tonnes per day. Similar markets would come up soon at Chennai and Madurai, they added.