Most cotton growers in the Tiruchi district have to go to Namakkal or other neighbouring districts hitherto to sell their produce through the agriculture marketing societies there or depend on traders, who charged a commission. Moreover they have to face delays in payment from traders and worries of being short-changed in weighing. To help farmers sell their produce without having to depend on intermediaries, the Tiruchi District Market Committee has introduced weekly cotton auction at the Thuraiyur Regulated Market.

The auctioning at the regulated market at Thuraiyur is expected to come in handy for farmers to transport their produce easily, as the crop is grown mainly in Thuraiyur, Musiri, Pullampadi Uppilliyapuram and Manachanallur areas in the district.

During the current year the cotton coverage has increased to about 12,000 hectares which is normally about 10,000 hectares..

Collector Jayashree Muralidharan instructed the Department of Agriculture Marketing and Agri Business to introduce an auctioning system through the regulated market as the farmers had been demanding introducing the cotton auctioning at the regulated market to overcome the problem and get better remunerative price.

The Regulated Market at Thuraiyur would conduct cotton auctions every Wednesday, according to R. Chandrasekaran, Deputy Director, Agri Business and Marketing and Special Officer, Tiruchi District Market Committee. The auction would be conducted by way of closed bidding to eliminate any malpractice. The regulated market at Thuraiyur also has a storage godown with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes where farmers could store their produce if they wished to hold the stocks for a better price.

Mr. Chandrasekaran, inaugurated the first auction on Wednesday in the presence of V. Kandasamy, Secretary of the District Market Committee, which attracted about 20 farmers and equal number of ‘lots’ comprising 79 bags of cotton. Five cotton traders participated in the auction. A publicity campaign had been launched to draw more cotton growers to the auction.

The cotton brought in by farmers fetched a minimum price of Rs. 46 a kg and a maximum of Rs. 58 a kg, depending on the quality. There is no charge to be paid by farmers for participating in the auction and or have to face apprehensions over weighing.