hyderabad
Notwithstanding the impact or lack of it for the farming community engaged in turmeric cultivation in the near future, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of establishing the Turmeric Board in Telangana has led to a fresh round of war of words between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on one side and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Congress on the other.
While the leaders of BJP are elated that the PM has scored a brownie point for them before the coming Assembly elections, the BRS and Congress are of the view that the announcement was made only keeping in view the elections, stating that it is too little and too late. The BRS and Congress leaders suspect the sincerity of the announcement as it has come after turning down the request for over nine years in Parliament and even outside by the BJP leadership.
The demand for Turmeric Board is not new but simmering for decades. Farmers, who raise the spice crop in Nizamabad and adjoining districts, have been demanding it to get better prices for their produce. “A board for turmeric means the crop will have minimum support price fixed by the Centre and the agency will take up research to improve the productivity and production of the crop with various interventions and also promote exports”, says State Planning Board vice-chairman B.Vinod Kumar.
In the absence of support price for the spice crop, it is the traders and middlemen who dictate the trading of the crop along with its price, ultimately denying proper returns to farmers. Although India is the largest producer and consumer of turmeric in the world, there is good demand for it in many Asian and other countries that use it as a cooking agent and for cosmetic uses.
Lack of proper price for turmeric in the markets has been discouraging farmers in Telangana over the years, and as a result, it has come down from a peak of about 1.4 lakh acres in 2019-20 to 86,000 acres in 2021-22, the lowest ever. In 2016, the turmeric crop fetched a highest-ever of ₹16,000 per quintal in Telangana but later it hardly touched the ₹10,000-mark. It is now fetching ₹12,000 to ₹15,000 per quintal in different markets.
Twist to turmeric tale
Adding a new twist to the issue, Minister for Legislative Affairs V. Prashanth Reddy, who hails from Nizamabad district, said on Monday that an amendment to the legislation (Act) — made in 1986 to establish the Spices Board of India which covers turmeric — is necessary to create the Turmeric Board. Without amending the Act, the announcement would be a mere eyewash, he remarked.
