T’malai to seek Rs 2 cr agri loan to make and sellMahadeepam oil

With Tiruvannamalai being the State’s highest producer of groundnut oil, the project involves cultivating, manufacturing and selling groundnut oil under the Prime Minister’s One District One Product (ODOP) scheme.

A company for this purpose was created and registered. Farmers, who were told about the project, were excited to work as the administration had revealed its plan to market the oil under the banner, Mahadeepam.

Based on farmer producer groups (FPG) and farmer producer companies (FPC) producing and selling only 430 litres groundnut oil against the installed capacity of 1120 litres per day, the administration informed the State Agricultural Marketing department that it had planned to sell 5,000 litres as a non-controlled commodity through the PDS in addition to tribal welfare, AD, BC and MBC hostels noon meal centers and ICDS operated anganwadis.

However, district officials were taken aback when Agri marketing officials said that they would forward the proposal to New Delhi for funds. “We now plan to seek a loan from the agricultural infrastructure funds with banks to ensure that the project goes on stream as quickly as possible,” an official involved in the project said.

As another official added, “We do not understand why the Chennai Agri-marketing office wants to fob off the project to New Delhi when we have indicated the project’s viability and the loan amount sought (Rs.2 crore) is a mere pittance for a State like Tamil Nadu.”