- (1.) BACKGROUND FACTS : 'Nilgiris' is a hill district in the State of Tamil Nadu. Mettupalayam is a small town situate in Nilgiris. The villagers of the surrounding villages for their livelihood depend on growing of vegetables and tea. With a view to see that the small vegetable growers are not exploited by the vegetable merchants, a society known as 'Nilgiris Co-operative Marketing Society Limited' (Society for short) was formed as far back as in 1935 with only 116 members.
(2.) The Society, however, grew in course of time and at present it has about 22000 members. The membership of the Society are of two categories. In the first category only the vegetable or food growers, agricultural co-operative credit societies and agricultural improvement societies are A-class members having voting rights; whereas traders, commission agents and merchants dealing in the commodities grown by the agriculturists are classified as B-class members. They have no right to vote or participate in the management of the Society. The B-class members only, however, are entitled to take part in auctions held in the marketing yards of the Society. Any dispute between the seller member and the purchaser member is resolved through arbitration in terms of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Societies Act, 1961.
(3.) The land holdings of the members of the society varies from 1/4th acre to five acres averaging two acres per member. They mainly depend on the rainfall as irrigational facilities are not available. The small farmers are economically weak and have no holding power. Many of them have to take loans for their subsistence, when the weather is not good. Many of them are illiterate. The vegetables produced from their lands being subjected to the vagaries of the weather, the merchants with a view to pressurize them either used to force them to sell that at a very low price or would make them wait for days so that the vegetables become useless. The majority of the members belong to 'Badaga' community which had been declared to be a backward class by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Mettupalayam is a centre for potatoes and vegetables trade.;