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From assessing the curcumin content in turmeric arbitrarily, farmers at the turmeric market in Erode will now be able to get a more scientific evaluation of the content, thanks to the turmeric assaying labs established by the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) at Gobichettipalayam and Perundurai. This facility is expected to help farmers explore newer markets for their produce, besides getting a fair price.
The lab at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Gobichettipalayam was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Minister for School Education KA Sengottaiyan on Saturday.
Urging the farmers to make best use of the facility, the minister said that the growers and traders of the produce from Anthiyur, Sathyamangalam, Chamrajnagar, Erode, Modakuruchi and Shaivagiri along with Tirupur and Karur districts will now be able to get a fair assessment of the curcumin content.
The project has been funded by NCDEX through its CSR intitiative PARAKH, and support of MYRADA.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Vijay Kumar, Managing Director, NCDEX, said this initiative is the first towards establishing a testing lab for curcumin in turmeric. NCDEX has invested around ₹20-25 lakh on the project, he said.
“Testing cannot be made compulsory, but considering the advantages the farmer will derive when a produce is scientifically tested, he can bargain for a better deal. Harmonisation of quality standards and availability of an assaying infrastructure for turmeric would enable producers to integrate with eNAM, since quality assaying is a key requirement to participate on the platform,” the NCDEX MD said.
More than 3,500-4,000 farmers in Erode turmeric region are expected to benefit from this assaying facility. NCDEX sources said that about 7-8 samples could be tested every day and the result would be made available in three days.
Vijay Kumar said that as many as 22-odd products were traded on NCDEX platform, and testing made available for all the produce, but for different attributes. Testing of an attribute for a commodity could be buyer-specific, he added.
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