new facility: Collector G. Govindaraj inaugurated turmeric auction centre in Tirupur on Monday. / Photo: M. Balaji / The Hindu

The turmeric auction centre has been officially opened by the Department of Agri Business and Marketing on Tirupur district at the Regulated Market campus on Monday. The trading would commence on January 9 and from then on it would be held on every Wednesday.

With this, the farmers raising the crop over 3,000 ha in the district in the predominant turmeric cultivating belt of Avinashi, Pongalur, Palladam, Muthur, Karaipudur and Sevur areas could use the facility to sell the crop without going to the auction markets in Coimbatore and Erode districts.

Though the establishment of the facility has come as a relief, many of the farmers are keeping their fingers crossed on to see the efficiency in its functioning in the coming days.

“Of late, we have been facing delays in the settlement of cash for every trading over a value of Rs. 1 lakh whenever using the similar auction facility at Erode. Officials here should ensure that such delays did not occur,” M. Ramasamy, a turmeric farmer from Sevur, told The Hindu.

P. Nallaswami, a turmeric farmer and retired secretary of Coimbatore Marketing Committee, said: “apart from ensuring prompt payments, weighing of the produce should be carried out at the moment of its arrival itself and earmark adequate space for stacking the turmeric so as to avoid the bottlenecks faced by farmers using similar facilities elsewhere.”

In Tirupur, the Department of Agri Business and Marketing was extending a plethora of facilities which include among others computerised marketing process right from receiving the stock till it was sold, which was installed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited.

Loan facility

A Shanmugam, superintendent of Regulated Market, said pledge loans facilities were also up for the farmers up to Rs 2 lakh to meet the working capital needs to raise the next set of crop.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> National> TamilNadu / by R. Vimal Kumar / Tirupur, January 01st, 2013