Member of Parliament Arvind Dharmapuri said that the turmeric task force committee (TTFC) with its sub-committees recently studied the issues in-depth right from planting of crop to its export promotion and made recommendations to the National Spices Board.
The board in turn already submitted the proceedings of the taskforce with its recommendations to the Ministry of Commerce, with a project cost of ₹15 crore for implementation in Telangana. The project is for a period of three years and components being production of quality planting material, distribution of IPM kits, organic certification, distribution of silpaulin sheet, assistance for purchase of turmeric boilers and polishers, pack houses, assistance for FPOs and capacity building (training programmes).
He said that the taskforce after a thorough discussion with various government agencies, farmers and traders’ association recommended ‘Pitambar’, ‘Prabha’, ‘Rajendra Sonia’ and ‘Roma’ varieties for the planting. It is learnt that the Ministry of Agriculture has already instructed the State Horticulture Department to develop seed nurseries of these promising varieties to cater the need of the farmers of Telangana.
The nurseries would be certified by the Union Agriculture and Horticulture ministries. In the meantime Deputy Director, Nizamabad and DD, Warangal would coordinate with the concerned departments to issue a notification to inform farmers.
To address the labour shortage in turmeric growing and processing areas, it was suggested to explore the possibility of deploying workers under MNREGA. Spices Board may take up this issue soon, he said while talking to The Hindu .
As the stakeholders have been raising the issue of proper packing system for turmeric at various levels the Board will take up the issue with Indian Institute of Packaging, Mumbai (IIP) to address the issue, Mr. Arvind said.
Traders and exporters have reported that the turmeric brought by farmers to market yard have a moisture of 15 or more resulting in deterioration of quality and leading to low price. To address the problem the Board decided to initiate action to supply moisture meters in to the AMC yard which could be used by the farmers, traders and AMC.
He said that it was also decided to explore the possibility of constructing a community drying yard in 1,000 square yards protected from animals and birds in the market yard.
COMMents
SHARE