Turmeric farmers made it very clear to the Central and the State Horticulture officers who visited the Turmeric Research Station at Kammarpally that the present price being offered for the crop in the market would not be sufficient for them to come out of farm crisis and hence demanded fixation of minimum support price as soon as possible.
During the course of interaction with the Union Horticulture Commissioner B.N.S. Moorthy and the State Horticulture Director L. Venkatram Reddy on Saturday, farmers and their leaders said that the present price which fluctuates often was not remunerative and despite they made making repeated representations to the governments there was no action.
Speaking on behalf of the farmers, Kisan Keth Congress State president S. Anwesh Reddy said that though the research stations were set up at Kammarpally, Darpally, Velpur and Timmapur of Morthad mandal new crop varieties were not supplied to farmers to ensure high yield with more curcumin per cent.
“The stations were not brought under use till date. When more than 30 per cent turmeric in the total crop grown in the country is coming from Nizamabad district why is the government hesitating to establish turmeric board here,” he questioned emphasising the need of setting up a board.
The situation was such that turmeric farmers were on the brink of taking extreme step to ending their lives with as they hardly got the investment back from the crop sold in the market, said farmers’ representatives those who contested the last Lok Sabha elections from Nizamabad.
This meeting was held by officials in continuation to the one on turmeric farmers’ issue in New Delhi on July 26.
(e.o.m)
