Erode farmers give up turmeric cultivation after drought, poor returns

Over the last few years, farmers in this predominantly agrarian region have begun to give up turmeric cultivation for either maize or sugarcane apparently due to water scarcity and poor returns.

“Just three years ago, Erode accounted for more than 21 per cent of India’s total annual production of 10 lakh tonnes of the yellow spice. This itself was a dip from its share of 40 per cent in the nation’s total turmeric production until a decade ago. Now, it has drastically come down further to a mere eight per cent. Drought and poor returns have forced the farmers to give up turmeric cultivation,” said PK Deivasigamani, president of Turmeric Farmers Association of India.

Though good rain this season could result in a rich harvest, turmeric has failed to fetch the expected remunerative pricing in the market.

“Turmeric production improved this season, compared to the earlier drought-hit years. Yet, farmers are not happy as they couldn’t get reasonable returns due to competitive pricing for the commodity in Telangana and Maharashtra, which have surpassed our production in recent years. This year, only 30 per cent of farmers raised the turmeric crop fearing poor rain,” said Deivasigamani.  

Both Telangana and Maharashtra have an edge over Tamil Nadu in terms of cheap labour, low pesticide cost and, not surprisingly, availability of water resources due to an unfailing Southwest monsoon. Tamil Nadu is more often forced to endure a mediocre Northeast monsoon. Yield per acreage for turmeric is also double in Telangana and Maharashtra due to conducive climate and nature of soil.

To tide over the crisis, turmeric cultivators in Tamil Nadu have been demanding both the State and Centre governments to fix a minimum support price (MSP) for the yellow spice.

“We are gradually losing hope as the government has been refusing to fix the MSP since turmeric doesn’t fall under the Essential Commodities Act. In the face of heavy losses in growing turmeric, a majority of farmers have switched to other crops such as sugarcane, groundnut and maize,” said S Boopathi Sundaram, Erode district president, Tamil Nadu Farmers Joint Movement.

Some farmers lamented that if this trend continues, turmeric cultivation could completely end in the state. “Already, the number of turmeric producers in the state have come down by about 50 per cent. From about one lakh a few years ago, only about 30,000 farmers are into turmeric cultivation in Erode district and across Tamil Nadu, the number may be around 55,000 farmers,” said Deivasigamani.

The cost of turmeric production in the state is Rs 1.72 lakh per acre, while the current selling price is only Rs 1.5 lakh. In Telangana and Maharashtra, the cost of production is Rs 1 lakh while the market price is a reasonably profitable Rs 1.5 lakh.

“Despite the high production cost of turmeric in Tamil Nadu, the pricing is fixed in the same range in every state. If the pricing is higher in Tamil Nadu, stocks from other states flood the market in Erode,” said another farmer.

Farmers said a gradual dip in demand for the yellow spice in the food industry and dwindling practice of women using turmeric powder were also some of the factors behind farmers shunning turmeric cultivation.