NIZAMABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of setting up of the much-awaited National Turmeric Board (NTB) has come as good news for the farmers in the district. The board will come as a shot in the arm for turmeric growers as it helps in the promotion, processing, marketing and export of turmeric.
Nizamabad is one of the largest turmeric-producing districts in Telangana and the Nizamabad Agricultural Market Yard is one of the major turmeric markets in the State. Farmers launched a movement demanding the establishment of NTB before 2006 and Swadeshi Jagran Manch also gave its support to their demand. In the later years, main political parties and people’s organisations joined the bandwagon.
Though officially turmeric is grown on more than 60,000 acres in the district, the area of its cultivation is much larger unofficially. A farmer spends more than Rs 1.10 lakh per acre for the cultivation of turmeric and on average gets a yield of 20 quintals. Ankapur in the district was once known for large-scale turmeric cultivation but lack of marketing, training and export facilities forced the farmers to gradually decrease the area of cultivation. According to sources, the farmers who cultivated turmeric in 1,823.23 hectares in 2020-2021 got a yield of 2,26,241.99 MTs. Out of this, the farmers in Nizamabad raised the crop in 13,942.16 hectares and got a yield of 8,6092.63 MTs. Bharathiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) national secretary K Sai Reddy hailing the PM’s announcement expressed the hope that the Board will take care of all the farmers’ issues from the cultivation stage to export.
According to him, the Board can be expected to implement a market intervention scheme with the help of Central and State governments to provide profitable prices for the farmers’ produce. Sai Reddy is hopeful that the NTB will start functioning before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. A turmeric farmer, J Madhusudhan Reddy of Aluru village, said that the NTB was a long pending aspiration of the farmers. Once the Board comes into being, the farmers will get assistance from experts for improving the turmeric yield, he said. Research, marketing and export facilities that would accrue from the Board would bring immense benefits for the farmers, he added.
Fluctuating prices of turmeric produce is one of the major issues. Farmers mostly do not wait for an increase in price to sell their produce due to the lack of storage facilities. Only a few who can afford to wait for the right time get a higher price. According to Madhusudhan Reddy, it’s very rare for farmers to get more than Rs 5,000 per quintal of turmeric in the Nizamabad market yard. He hopes that all these disadvantages will be a thing of the past once the NTB is set up. Speaking to TNIE, Turmeric Buyers’ Association Secretary Kamal Innani said that after the establishment of the NTB, turmeric will get special identification in the global market. According to him, the Board will mainly concentrate on increasing marketing facilities at the global level.