PPP project in AP to support Chintapalli tribals grow local turmeric variety

Around 2,000 tribal farmers of the hilly Chintapalli region in Andhra Pradesh, supported by the State government, are set to expand the area under turmeric.

The local turmeric variety has been found to have 5-7 per cent curcumin content compared to 3-4 per cent in regular variety. This variety is in high demand in the pharmaceutical industries for its immunity boosting content.

Chintapalli region is part of Arakku Valley, 120 km from Visakhapatnam.

Those familiar with the developments told BusinessLine that the tribal farmers, who traditionally have been growing this variety of turmeric in around 1,000 acres, are supported by the State government with Public-Private-Partnership for Integrated Agriculture Development.

Agriculture value chain major Lawrencedale Agro Processing India (P) Ltd has been on-boarded as one of the few farmer development companies.

Palat Vijayaraghavan, CEO and founder, Lawrencedale Agro, said the company is discussions for establishing the value-chain from the remote tribal belt. “It will engage with the tribal farmers to improve the quality of the crop, enable access to high quality plant protection, nutrition solutions and organised credit,” he said.

“The regular turmeric is an annual crop, whereas the turmeric from the Chintapalli region comes once in two years. The volume of the crop is also considerably less at around 4-5 tonnes per acre as against 15-16 tonnes for the regular variety.