A golden opportunity for Erode manjal?

Over the past eight years, turmeric traders in Erode were knocking on the doors of the Geographical Indications Registry of India to get the coveted recognition for the yellow spice grown in the district.

On Wednesday, they eventually got the GI tag , but during the same period, turmeric cultivation has been gradually losing its sheen in Erode as farmers moved to other crops.

"Manjalukku bathila maravalli potuten (I have raised tapioca instead of turmeric this year)," says T Thanikasalam, owner of a two-acre farm in Kodumudi, a small town along the banks of the Cauvery. While in 2017 turmeric became a super food in the US and the UK, with turmeric lattes and creams promising good health and glowing skin, back home the markets don’t portray a bright picture.

In Kodumudi, the hotspot for turmeric cultivation, the flapping of the broad leaves and mild fragrance of the 3f-high turmeric plants have been replaced with maize, tapioca, banana and drumstick.

Turmeric cultivation began more than 100 years ago in the fertile red soil of the Kongu region irrigated by the Bhavani, a tributary of the Cauvery. Over the years, farmers increased cultivation of the crop covering approximately 30,000 hectares. But, from 14,200 hectares in 2010-11, cultivation shrunk to 5,000 hectares by 2015. A spike in cultivation was recorded two years ago when 9,000 hectares were used to grow turmeric, but then a drastic fall followed with the crop occupying only 3,000 hectares. "Erode accounted for up to 40% of the total turmeric produced in the country. Three years ago we slipped to 20%. This year we may decline further,’’ says P K Deivasigamani, president of Turmeric Farmers Association of India.

Deivasigamani cites multiple reasons for the decline in production, primarily water shortage and lack of reasonable market price. The drought that hit Tamil Nadu four years ago forced farmers to opt for less water-intensive crops. Growth of turmeric production in Telangana and Maharashtra, which dominated a chunk of the market share, reduced demand for the Erode manjal. "Over the years, Maharashtra has been aggressively promoting turmeric production,’’ says V K Rajamanickam, former general secretary of Federation of All Trade and Industries Association, Erode. The Sangli variety from Maharashrta also received the GI tag last year. Rajamanickam, a farmer and trader, says Maharashtra has been constructing dozens of cold storage facilities to help stock up turmeric and sell them when it fetches a good price, while Erode has less than a handful of such facilities.

Since there were bumper harvests in Telangana and Maharashtra in 2016, the prices went down. This forced Erode farmers to stock their produce for sale later. But the stocks didn’t fetch enough and presence of a large quantum of stock forced farmers to shift to other crops subsequently. The production cost for one hectare of turmeric is Rs1.72 lakh in Erode, while in Telangana it’s 1.5 lakh or less, says Deivasigamani. Availability of cheap labour and rain reduce the production cost in Telangana making cultivation profitable. "Of course, we produce superior quality turmeric that fetches us an additional Rs500 per kg. But high input costs offset that benefit," he says.

New markets opening up in food and cosmetic industry, traders and farmers say, hasn’t reflected here yet. Farmers point out that though cosmetic companies market turmeric-based products, the traditional practice of women applying it on their face in TN is on the wane. State horticulture officials say that drop in turmeric production is seasonal because of drought and it will bounce back. Farmers are also hopeful that the GI tag would give a global branding to Erode turmeric. But government needs to do its bit to promote turmeric, they say. To start with more cold storage facilities should be established and in the long run research should be conducted to boost production.