MP inspects Turmeric Procurement Centre

National convention in Erode on July 21

Member of Parliament R Druvanarayan on Thursday made an inspection visit to turmeric procurement centre in APMC premises at Chamarajanagar.

Speaking to press persons, he said, more than nine thousand quintal of turmeric is purchased at Rs five thousand per quintal in district and Rs 4.5 crore of financial assistance is provided to farmers by government. Turmeric price by this step would rise to Rs 6,000 in coming days which would benefit farmers.

He said appropriate measures would be taken by government to purchase turmeric at support price, if there is decrease in price.

MLA C Puttarangashetty, taluk panchayat president Mahadevi Jadeyappa, vice president Mahalingaswamy, member Chikkamahadevu, ex- president B K Ravikumar, zilla panchayat member Kaveri Shivakumarswamy, TAPMC president Basavanna, secretary Mahadevu and others were present.

Convention

President of Turmeric Farmers Association of India P K Deivasigamani said, national convention of turmeric farmers is organised on July 21 in Erode of Tamil Nadu.

Addressing a press meet in Mysore on Friday, he said more than a lakh of farmers would participate in the convention from all over the country. Union minister for agriculture Sharad Pawar, MPs A Ganeshmurthy, H Vishwanath and R Dhruvanarayana would participate.

He accused the government of neglecting farmers. Explaining the objective of convention, he said purchasers and middlemen are taking advantage of turmeric growers by regularly increasing the cost and thus the cost would be announced by farmers themselves which would be fixed at the convention and they should not sell their produce for lesser price than the fixed one. “Recently turmeric was purchased at Rs 5,500 to 6,600 per quintal.”

He said due to drought in different parts of country turmeric farmers are in fix. The produce is decreased by 70 per cent with failure of monsoon showers.

Farmers in distress

All farmers are in distress with drought situation while banks are forcing farmers to pay back the loans. Notices are issued to farmers for repayment even though State government has instructed banks to convert medium term loans into long term ones. He said Government should take action upon banks registering case against farmers.

President of State sugarcane growers association Kurubur Shantakumar said government should hold back works at sugarcane factories till payment of farmers is cleared. He said sugarcane growers would intensify their protests against government and factories, if appropriate measures is not taken to solve their problems.

T V Gopinath, H N Aiyappa, Kiragasuru Shankar, Ramakrishna, Manjunath Urs and others were present.