Cong demands help for farmers

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and Nalgonda MP, Uttam Kumar Reddy, demanded that the central government immediately intervene to help the turmeric farmers who are in distress.

Raising the issue during zero hour in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Reddy recalled 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 metric tonnes (MTs) of turmeric are lying in markets with no purchasers. We demand that the central government intervene now, set an MSP of `10,000 for the turmeric per quintal and immediately purchase them,” Reddy demanded.

Reddy said that India ranks first, contributing 80 per cent of the world’s turmeric and Telangana stands first in the production of turmeric in India with an area of 1.33 lakh acres and a production of 2.81 lakh MTs involving 107,506 farmers.

“The Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) survey says that the per capita consumption of turmeric is

1.58 gm per day. Therefore, the total required for Telangana

(3.5 crore population) per day is about 55.47 MTs and about 20,245 MTs per year at an estimated value of `243 crore, said Reddy.

“Therefore, Telangana has a surplus of 2.61 lakh MTs valued at about `1,569.34 crore which is being exported to other states and countries,” he pointed out.