Telangana state turmeric farmers in distress: Uttam to Centre

New Delhi/Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday demanded that the Central government to immediately intervene to help the turmeric farmers who are in distress.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the condition of turmeric farmers in Telangana today was highly distressing.

He reminded that Union Minister Rajnath Singh had given a specific assurance in the last elections in Telangana that a Turmeric Board would be set up. But no such steps have been taken, he said.

"Today lakhs of tonnes of turmeric is lying in markets with no purchasers. We demand that the Central government intervene now, set an MSP of Rs 10,000 for the turmeric per quintal and immediately purchase them," Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded.

Uttam said that the Central government, in its Agriculture Export Policy announced in 2018, had declared turmeric as focused export.

But today, for the farmers of turmeric, nobody is buying their product and they're in distressed condition and in near suicide stage. Therefore, he demanded that the Centre intervene immediately to help the turmeric farmers.

Later, Uttam Kumar Reddy informed that India ranks first by contributing 80 per cent of the world turmeric production and Telangana stands first in area and production of turmeric in India.

Turmeric is produced in an area of 1.33 lakh acres with and production of 2.81 lakh MTs covering 107,506 farmers.