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With the cost of production shooting up and prices falling, turmeric farmers in Nizamabad area are not much elated over the Union Government’s decision to upgrade the local office of the Spices Board.
Piyush Goyal, Union Commerce Minister, announced on Tuesday that the Nizamabad office of the Spices Board would be upgraded into a Regional Centre and an Extension Centre.
The news didn’t bring any cheer to thousands of turmeric farmers in the turmeric hub of Nizamabad. For them, anything short of an exclusive Turmeric Board would not solve their problems. They have been demanding that the Centre set up a Board on the lines of the Tobacco Board or Coconut Development Board or Coir Board.
Telangana is a leading turmeric player in the country, with an estimated acreage of about 1.20 lakh acres.
“This is a dampener. The extension centre and a regional centre for spices won’t help. There is a similar centre in Warangal and it has not helped increase the price of chilli by a rupee,” says Gangadhar, Nizamabad District Secretary of Telangana Rythu Sangham.
Turmeric economics
Farmers say it costs about ₹1.5 lakh an acre to grow turmeric. The cost of labour has gone up significantly. “They even charge ₹150 an hour. It has become extremely prohibitive. They charge ₹4,000 for a set of bullocks and plough a day,” says Anvesh Reddy, President of the State Kisan Congress.
Nizamabad has emerged as a leading hub for turmeric crop. That Armoor itself grows turmeric on about 45,000 acres shows how concentrated this crop is in the district.
But what the farmers are getting in the market is less than a third of it. “It is selling at ₹4,000-4,500. In a good year, farmers reap 20 quintals. In other seasons, they get 10-15 quintals. In the absence of an MSP, the farmers are ending up in losses even in a good year,” Gangadhar says.
With prices falling and cost of production shooting up, the farmers, cutting across party affiliations, have been protesting for years, seeking remunerative prices.
“We demand a minimum support price (MSP) of ₹15,000 a quintal. Only a Board can ensure remunerative prices as it eliminates middlemen,” Gangadhar points out.
Turmeric is such an important issue in this part of the State that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Arvind Dharmapuri won the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat largely because of his promise on the establishment of a Turmeric Board.
To express their anger over the unresolved issues, as many as 176 turmeric (and red jowar) farmers contested the election and could garner about 95,000 votes. This was a key reason for the defeat of Kavitha., Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter.
Some of them contested the Varanasi seat (against Prime Minister Narendra Modi) as well.
Despite government claims that the establishment of the Regional Centre and Extension Centre is much more than what was promised, farmers feel that it is just an eyewash.
“If a dedicated Board comes, it will exclusively focus on the crop. We will get a better price and middlemen be eliminated,” says Anvesh Reddy.
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