Chief minister J Jayalalithaa has laid the foundation for the agriculture terminal market complex (TMC) at Perundurai State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Sipcot), Erode district. The complex will be set up at a cost of Rs 120.62 crore under the public-private partnership model.
According to the state government, nearly 100,000 farmers across seven districts would benefit from this. It is expected to create jobs for 200 people directly and 800 indirectly. Further, the TMC would reduce the post-harvest loss of farm goods from 30 per cent to 10 per cent.
The complex has a capacity to handle an average 1,500 tonne farm goods per day and each collection centre 75 tonnes per day.
Agriculture Department officials said the facility was the first-of-its-kind in the country being promoted in public-private partnership, and would spread across 47.9 acre land.
Of the total cost, the National Horticulture Mission would give Rs 28 crore and the agriculture marketing department Rs 1 crore. 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.
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Of the total collection, 70 per cent would be perishable and the rest non-perishable commodities, officials said. It will also have cold storage units.
Apart from selling the goods on the spot, it will also sell through e-business.
A minimum commission of three 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. According to the price quoted by traders, the goods would be sold later. The TMC would also store the farm goods in the unit. Similar markets would come up soon at Chennai and Madurai, they added.