The trouble over turmeric price kept simmering on Tuesday with a heated argument breaking out between the turmeric farmers and traders at a private market here over the latter not displaying the floor price of Rs.9,000 a quintal, fixed by the Turmeric Farmers Association of India.
From Monday, the association has been urging farmers not to sell the spice below the floor price of Rs.9,000 a quintal. On Tuesday, it demanded an explanation as to why the tag indicating the price was not placed on many of the samples.
It was said that the members of the association and the traders agreed earlier that a tag mentioning the name of the farmer, his contact phone number and the minimum asking price would be kept along with every sample displayed for auction in the markets.
Since the farmers were not getting remunerative price for turmeric, the association conducted a national conference and announced Rs.9,000 as the floor price for turmeric on the lines of the National Egg Co-ordination Committee.
When the member-farmers arrived at the market on Tuesday morning, they found the tags missing on several samples.
Association president P.K. Deivasigamani alleged irregularities in the conduct of auction at the markets in Erode including the private turmeric market. The authorities in the market were auctioning the turmeric without informing the farmers, he said.
Denying the allegations, Erode Turmeric Merchants Association President R.K.V. Ravishankar said that the turmeric kept at the private market were auctioned based on the consent of the farmers. The members of the farmers’ association were causing inconvenience to the farmers who were bringing their produce to the market.
The traders said that they had taken the issue to the notice of the district administration and police. Additional police personnel were deployed at the turmeric markets following the incident.
Meanwhile, the arrival of turmeric continued to be poor for the second day on Tuesday in all the four turmeric markets.
The district administration scheduled a meeting on August 29 to discuss the issue with the farmers and traders. It had asked the authorities of the private market not to conduct auction on Wednesday.
