Department of Agricultural Marketing & Agri Business

Agricultural Marketing & Agri Business is to ensure fair price to the farming community by implementing new technologies aimed at reducing pre and post harvest losses through appropriate methods and encourage value addition. Agricultural Marketing infrastructure plays an important role in rural economic development. Agri Business is a process, which starts with a decision to produce a saleable farm commodity and it involves all the aspects relating to pre and post-harvest operations including grading, value addition, packaging, processing and transportation. Uzhavar Santhai: Establishment and maintenance of Farmers market (Uzhavar Sandhai) to enable the farmers get better price for their produce and the consumers get fresh fruits and vegetables at a lesser price than the retail market without any hindrance of middlemen. In , 11 uzhavar santhais are functioning at Suramangalam, Ammapet, , Dadagapatti, , Hasthampatti, Attayampatti, , , Jalagandapuram and Edapadi with an average arrival per day of 985 farmers and 55757 consumers. Cold Storages: Modern cold storage facilities are set up to enable the farmers to store and sell their produce at favourable price and to help consumers to get quality food products. The main objectives are to increase the shelf life of the produce after harvest and to extend the marketing period. Cold storages are established at (100 & 25 MT), Valapadi (25 & 25 MT), Salem, Attur and (each 25 MT). Formation of Farmer Producer Organisation:

Integrating Farmer producer Group into Farmer Producer Organization for Agri Technology promotion and create Market linkages. A Producer Company offers a statutory and regulatory framework that creates the potential for producer-owned enterprises to compete with other enterprises on a competitive footing. It provides the possibility of small producers to form their own companies, without loss of control of their assets .There are 12 FPO’s promoted by this department.

Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project (TNIAMP):

Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project (TNIAMP) is being implemented for six years from 2017-18 to 2022-23 in Mettur Noyyal and Thirumanimuthar sub-basins with a project outlay of Rs.202.03 Lakhs. TNIAM Project aims to promote farmer Producer Organizations, investment support to these FPCs, supporting Business expansion grant to existing FPCs and creating opportunities for Agri business development for Agri entrepreneurs and Modernisation of Regulation Markets to get remunerative price for Agricultural Produce. Supply Chain Management: This project is funded under the Warehouse Infrastructure Fund (WIF) of NABARD for creating state of the art infrastructure facilities for primary processing and creating market linkages to handle fruits, vegetables and other perishable commodities in the select villages of Salem District. TNSCM Project is aimed at creating effective forward and backward linkages across the supply chain for fruits, vegetables and other perishables by establishing 5 primary processing centers at Utmasolapuram, (Kammakapalayam), (Thangayur), Kolathur (Konur) and Vazhapady (Thukiyampalayam).

PM Formalization of Micro food Processing Enterprises(PMFME):

The scheme aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro- enterprises in the unorganized segment of the Food Processing industry and promote formalisation of the sector to support Farmer Producer Organisations(FPO’s),Self Help Groups and Producer Co-operatives along their entire value chain,Increased asses to credit by existing micro food processing entrepreneurs,FPOs, Self Help Groups and Co– operatives and to integrate with organized supply chain by strengthening branding & Marketing. The Scheme adopts One District One Product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefit in terms of procurement of inputs,availing common services and marketing of products.For Salem Salem District Tapioca is seleceted as ODOP produce.

Agmark grading: Agmark is a certification mark for agriculture products assuring that the products confirm to prescribed standards. This is fully a voluntary scheme. Agmark certification issued relies on agriculture produce (grading and marking) Act of 1937 and amended in 1986. This Act is implemented by Director of Marketing and Inspection under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, an agency of Government of . The present Agmark cover quality guidelines for 225 different commodities of Pulses, Cereals, Essential Oils, Vegetable oils, Fruits and Vegetables and semi processed products. Grading of food products are made through Agmark Laboratory for the benefit of the consumers.

Ulavar Sandhai

Cold storage

Value added products

Training to farmers