Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry E.M.Sudarsana Natchiappan on Saturday said Madurai had become a model for the entire country to emulate by establishing a state-of-the-art multi-foodgrain marketing yard.
After inspecting the Tamil Nadu Food Grains Marketing Yard (TNFGMY) at Sikkandarchavadi here, he said the Centre would be happy to provide financial assistance for such projects across the country if the traders were willing to contribute their mite.
The Tamil Nadu Food Grains Marketing Yard has been established on 30 acres at a cost of Rs.40 crore, 75 of which was contributed by the Union Ministry under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgrading Scheme. The remaining amount was pooled in by around 250 foodgrain merchants in and around Madurai.
The yet-to-be inaugurated yard boasts of 250 goods storage depots, a 16,000-tonne-capacity warehouse, a three-storey cold storage unit with underground and elevator facilities, a pre-processing centre, a packaging centre and a laboratory.
Objective of the cluster
According to its chairman and managing director S.Rethinavelu, the objective of the cluster was to adopt scientific methods to avoid foodgrain loss due to improper storage, minimise wastage in processing and increase productivity.
Nominal charges
Farmers could also use these facilities at nominal charges. They could bring their moist foodgrains for drying, cleaning, grading and exhibiting them at the in-house products display centre wherein local as well as foreign purchasers would bid the rates, he pointed out.
If the sellers were not satisfied with the rates offered, the goods could be stored either in the warehouse or cold storage unit for as long as they wanted.
The warehouse receipts could be pledged at a bank branch inside the yard for generating funds until the stocks were sold, he noted.
The yard had planned to conduct training for farmers and merchants in adding value to their produce and minimising foodgrain loss at the time of processing and storage, Mr.Rethinavelu added.
