There's no end to Telangana turmeric farmers' misery

A week ago, a group of turmeric farmers of Nizamabad district, Telangana, dumped their produce in front of the residence of BJP MP Dharmapuri Aravind at Armoor and staged a dharna, demanding the setting up of a separate board for turmeric on the lines of tea board and coffee board.

The hundred-odd farmers also demanded the extension of MSP to the turmeric crop as well. This is not the first time that the BJP MP faced the wrath of turmeric farmers. In January, the farmers of the Armoor area waylaid the convoy of the MP to question him on his inability to get the turmeric board set up in Nizamabad, which was his principal poll plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Holding placards and raising slogans against the MP, the farmers refused to allow the vehicle to leave. An argument between the farmers and followers of MP ensued amidst jostling. Vehicles were also pelted with stones. Finally, the police had to swing into action to ensure safe passage for the MP.

The reason behind the ire of the farmers is the crash in prices of turmeric and low yield.

The threat of debt trap

According to Nalimela Chinna Reddy, a turmeric farmer from Armoor, farmers were thrown into the debt trap due to the government’s apathy. He blames local politicians for the pathetic condition of turmeric growers in Telangana.

Also read: Telangana farmers burn TN BJP manifesto over turmeric board promise

“Between 2008 and 2012, the crop fetched Rs 10,000 to Rs 11,000 per quintal. But the prices crashed from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 in 2014-15. Though the cultivation cost has gone up manifolds in the past seven years, the prices are stuck in 2014. Imagine the plight of the farmers who are investing more on the crop as per 2021 prices and getting the returns as in 2014,” he said.

Another factor that hit the financial condition of the farmers was the unseasonal rain, he said.

“The rains have damaged the crop and the yield from my farm was just 40 per cent. Turmeric is so important a crop in India that it is difficult to imagine a kitchen without a turmeric tin. Still, the plight of the turmeric farmers has remained unattended for over 7 years,” Chinna Reddy lamented.

The unseasonal heavy rains last September played havoc with the crop. This is the second time in succession that the farmers have suffered crop loss due to heavy rains. While the crop damage resulted in low yield, the lack of MSP protection brought down the prices resulting in a crisis in the lives of turmeric farmers, Reddy said.

While India is the global leader in value-added turmeric products and exports, the area comprising the erstwhile districts of Nizamabad, Warangal, Adilabad and Karimnagar is known as the turmeric bowl of India. Nizamabad district is the highest producer of the crop in the country. However, a value chain study on turmeric cultivation in Telangana done in 2017 on behalf of the Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, Union Ministry of Agriculture, says ‘all is not well’ with the crop, pointing to the decline in acreage and production.

The productivity has started falling from 2014-15 onwards.  While the productivity was 87.02 per cent in 2011, it was just 68.77 per cent in 2015, indicating a steep fall in the acreage and production. The report suggested many measures which include setting up of spice park, processing unit, and supplying machinery to reduce the cost burden on the farmers.

Spice park remains stillborn

In a written reply, on August 2, 2017, the then commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman did acknowledge that she had received a proposal for setting up a spice park from the state government. But nothing concrete happened on the ground, either on the recommendation of the value-chain report or proposal from the state government.

Also read: Study unravels the genome of turmeric

That was the first and last time one heard about the spice park from the Union government and the state government, said Congress spokesperson Prof Sravan Dasoju. Stating that mere acknowledgement is no solution, Prof Sravan demanded a status report on the spice park as well as other issues the turmeric farmers are facing here in Telangana.

T Anvesh Reddy, a turmeric farmer, attributed the decline in acreage and production along with the low prices to ‘apathy’ on the part of both the state and central governments. He alleged that nothing has been done to improve farming of a crop as important as turmeric after the formation of the separate state, he alleged.

Anvesh, who himself organized many a protest against the state and central governments, said, “We thought the formation of the state was the panacea for turmeric farmers’ woes and the long-pending demand for a separate board for turmeric would get realized. A turmeric board is necessary because it would create an institutional infrastructure to take care of the interests of the farmers. Farmers would be able to talk directly to the board, and demand assistance in the cultivation and marketing of their produce. And a board headquartered at Nizamabad would go a long way in addressing the issues troubling the farmer. The absence of the board and unsympathetic attitude of the governments are sending the farmers into a debt trap,” Reddy said.

Turmeric politics

Unfortunately, politicians are reaping electoral benefits over the miseries of farmers. The incident that happened at the residence of Aravind provided the chief minister’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who is also an MLC, with a golden opportunity to steal the limelight after a long gap.

Breaking her silence, Kavitha, who represented the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency from 2014 to 2019, described Dharmapuri as ‘Adharmapuri’. In the last three years, she said, the BJP MP spoke only five times and not even once did he bring up the demand of setting up a turmeric board. She recalled how she moved a private member’s bill for the board when she was the MP.

Curiously, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Dharmapuri emerged as the giant killer by defeating Kavitha, flaunting a non-judicial stamp paper to turmeric farmers during his election campaign. The stamp paper carried a vow which said “I will resign from Lok Sabha if the turmeric board was not set up in a month.” He signed the paper before the huge gathering and displayed it at every roadshow. It was the time when farmers had started questioning the TRS government and MP on their failure to get the three-decade-old demand materialized.

They were particularly unhappy that even a separate state belied their hopes. So, to demonstrate their displeasure over CM’s daughter-MP they decided to file nominations in hundreds to ensure her defeat. Aravind, a BJP debutant, took up the cause and emerged champion of turmeric farmers. As the BJP came forward to support their demand, as many as 180 farmers chose to file nominations as independent candidates. The unique protest dashed her hope of re-election. High-profile Kavitha lost the election with a margin of 70,000 votes.

Now waiting for an opportunity to strike at her bete noir, Kavitha circulated a copy of statistics she obtained under RTI to show that Dharmapuri ‘ditched’ turmeric farmers. “According to information gathered under RTI, Dharmapuri could get a paltry sum of Rs 1.92 crore in three years as an assistant to turmeric farmers. There are about 1 lakh farmers in the constituency and this means each farmer would have got Rs 200 as help from the Centre,” she said.

The Varanasi twist

Another twist in the tale came during the Varanasi Lok Sabha elections, where Narendra Modi was himself a candidate. As many as 1,000 farmers decided to file nominations against Modi to bring the matter to the notice of the PM. Only 25 could file nominations but one only form was found to be in order. Though the lone farmer, Sunnapu Estheri, lost the election, the issue attracted national attention.

Meanwhile, Union agriculture minister Purushottam Rupala said a separate board for a single spice like turmeric was neither feasible nor required. “A board already exists for 50 spices. The government has taken many initiatives to improve ‘curcumin’ content in turmeric. The spice board divisional office at Nizamabad has been upgraded to regional office-cum-extension centre,” the minister said in Lok Sabha on March 15.”

But, the issue refuses to die down. Now, Kavitha, with an eye on the next Lok Sabha election, wants her pound of flesh. She appears to have discovered that the broken promise of resignation is the right tool to hit at Dharmapuri in 2024.

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