Kavitha bats for turmeric board

​New Delhi: On a day when turmeric was facing negative trend due to the disinterest of north India markets in the commodity, TRS MP from Nizamabad K Kavitha on Wednesday sought the intervention of Union Agriculture Minister Dr Radha Mohan Singh to stabilise the markets by adding turmeric to the minimum support price list of crops.

The support price would immensely benefit the turmeric farmer, Kavitha, representing the top-notch turmeric producing constituency of the country, said.

The Nizamabad MP pleaded for geographical indication (GI) tag for turmeric due to its specialty. Kavitha urged the Centre to see that a turmeric board was constituted in Telangana state. The Union Minister reportedly promised to look into the issue.

Explaining the problems faced by the turmeric farmers in Telangana to the minister, Kavitha drew minister’s attention to the fact that the price of turmeric had fallen from Rs 16,000 per quintal to Rs 6,000 in Telangana. It was imperative that the government extend the MSP facility to turmeric farmers, she pleaded.

She wanted the Centre to include the product under commercial crops category as it would help the farmers fetch a better price. Sources in the Commerce Ministry told The Hans India that turmeric on the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) settled down -2.29% at Rs 8,030 per quintal due to negligible upcountry orders from the north Indian pockets.

Pressure was also seen on account of poor demand due to higher supply of inferior or lower grade turmeric from the producing regions. Ample stocks position following new supplies in local ‘mandies’ too weighed on turmeric prices. Farmers are holding good quality stocks hoping prices to go up in the coming months.

"At Sangli market arrivals (today) were reported at 5,800 quintals, unchanged as compared to previous day’s arrival. At Warangal market arrivals were reported at 3,500 bags, lower by 500 bags as against previous day. At Nizamabad market, arrivals were reported at 3,000 quintals, down by 2,000 quintals as compared to the previous day.

Turmeric prices are expected to look up in the coming week because of fears of weak output caused by poor rain of 2015," the sources said.

"The sale of turmeric in Erode markets has increased. Many traders have started buying the turmeric on large-scale though they are getting limited demand from north India. Some traders are keen in buying only the new turmeric and some procured the hybrid turmeric. Around 400 bags of turmeric, including 900 bags of new crop arrived and 70 per cent of the stocks were sold.

When pointed out that Kavitha was talking of prices varying around Rs 6,000 they said, "it depends on the quality. We are sure the farmers are holding back good quality turmeric and not bringing it to the markets right now anticipating a jump in the prices in future.”

Those who accompanied Kavitha were Prashant Reddy vice-chairman of Mission Bhagiratha Prashant Reddy, MLAs Bajireddy Goverdhan, Vidyasagar Rao, Jeevan Reddy and Sanjay Kumar, and fifty farmers from Nizamabad.