Hyderabad: A delegation of the Telangana Turmeric Farmers’ Association on Wednesday met and handed over a memorandum to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in which the farmers asked for a National Turmeric Board to be established and for a minimum support price (MSP) for turmeric.
“Turmeric is one of the critical crops in the country and accounts for 80 per cent of the total turmeric output in the world. Telangana is the biggest turmeric crop producer in the country with 26 per cent share followed by Tamil Nadu with 21 per cent, Andhra Pradesh 14 per cent and Karnataka and Maharashtra seven per cent each. Turmeric farmers are affected most by the fluctuations in selling price,” the memorandum said.
The association’s state president Kotapati Narsimham Naidu said, “We informed the Governor about our problems. She assured us she would intervene in the matter and convey our problems to the Central government.”
Turmeric farmers recalled the promise made to them by the former MP K. Kavitha and current BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind, to set up the National Turmeric Board.
One farmer alleged that the efforts made by former MP K Kavitha are being repeated by the present Nizamabad MP D Arvind but nothing has benefited turmeric farmers so far and if their demands are not be met by the BJP, history will be repeated and the turmeric farmers will contest the elections again as they did in the last Lok Sabha election.
