The farmers have been waiting since five years to get a remunerative rate for their turmeric, but with no luck. Meanwhile, their produce is languishing in cold storages. Turmeric farmers of Krishna Delta are trapped in a quagmire of cold storage rent, interest on loans and unremunerative market prices for their produce.
One quintal of dry turmeric sold for Rs.6,700 on Friday at the Duggirala Market. The rate of turmeric on the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) was Rs 8,356 a quintal on the corresponding day.
Turmeric is a very labour intensive crop. The land has to be ploughed and the rhizomes gathered by hand. The harvested rhizomes are cleared of mud and other extraneous matter adhering to them.
The fresh produce has to be cured to obtain dry turmeric. The fingers are separated from mother rhizome. The mother rhizomes are usually kept by the farmers to be used as seed material. Curing involves boiling of the fresh rhizome in water and drying in the sun.
Duggirala turmeric farmer Nani said that a farmer had to spend between Rs 1 lakh to 1.2 lakh an acre for the labour alone. After harvesting and curing the yield was sent to the cold storage to be sold when the price was good.
“I have been waiting for three years now. Every year I sell half my turmeric and the remaining half I send to the cold storage so that I can sell it when the price is good and make a profit. Everyone is saying that the prices will go up in ‘Sravanamasam’ this year. I am hoping that the price touches Rs 9,000 a qunital. I will sell all my stock then,” Mr Nani said.
Meanwhile, he has been paying rent of Rs 200 per quintal a year to the cold storage. There are farmers who have been paying rent for five years. Others have mortgaged their stocks in the cold storage to the banks. They had the additional burden of paying interest on loan.
“We have been asking the Government to fix a minimum support price (MSP) for turmeric too or we will all get permanently stuck in the debt trap, Mr Nani said.
