Chennai: As part of its ambitious “supply chain management scheme for fruits, vegetables and other perishables” in Krishnagiri and Coimbatore districts, the state government on Thursday held a consultative meeting in Chennai to invite agro-based investors to start primary processing centres.The state has announced a Rs 398.75-crore project in ten districts to integrate the farmers’ producers with major market centres, processors and consumers to provide integrated and complete supply chain management infrastructure. Apart from this, support services will also be given for perishable fruits and vegetables to reduce post-harvest losses and provide uninterrupted supply of quality produce to the consumers at affordable price. The project will be implemented on hub-and-spoke model in the ten districts of Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Coimbatore, The Nilgiris, Trichy, Dindigul, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Tuticorin and Tirunelveli. “Coimbatore and Krishnagiri have been selected in the first phase for implementation of the project on PPP mode. Ten primary processing centres have been established in Krishnagiri district at Rs 136.18 crore and seven in Coimbatore district at Rs 40.74 crore,” said an official release.The investors were informed that shortly bids would be called to run the primary processing centres in the two districts by procuring vegetables and fruits from the farmers. The investors will put processing machinery in each centre to sort out, grade and process the fruits and vegetables. Senior bureaucrats of agriculture and NITI Aayog took part in the meet.

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