The board is expected to cater to the requirements of turmeric growers in 20 states in the country including Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.
Published Jan 14, 2025 | 3:10 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 14, 2025 | 3:10 PM
Piyush Goyal inaugurating the turmeric board. (X)
The dream of the turmeric farmers in Telangana has come true. Even though it has been more than a year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to set up the national turmeric board in Nizamabad, ahead of the Assembly elections in 2023, it finally became a reality on Tuesday, 14 January.
In a span of less than 24 hours after appointing BJP State Secretary Palle Ganga Reddy, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal inaugurated the board virtually.
The doubt about whether the board’s headquarters will be located in Nizamabad was also cleared with its inauguration. The board is expected to cater to the requirements of turmeric growers in 20 states in the country including Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.
The board has been a long time coming. It has become more of a sentimental issue for the turmeric growers not only in the Nizamabad district but also for those in the nearby districts and parts of Maharashtra.
In the absence of a full-fledged board and no mechanism to ensure a better price for the turmeric, the farmers have been taking their produce to Sangli in Maharashtra to get a better price.
Ever since the formation of Telangana state in 2014, it was an issue which had been allowed to simmer. Kavitha Kalvakuntla, who was elected to Lok Sabha from Nizamabad in 2014, could not get the board for the farmers though she had tried her best. It was perceived that it was because she was a leader of the BRS, which is opposed to the BJP.
In the 2019 elections, BJP leader Dharmapuri Arvind convinced the farmers that getting turmeric board would be possible with him only since the BJP was in power at the centre and therefore it would make sense for the farmers to elect him. His approach to the demand had paid but the setting up of the board remained a dream.
Arvind, to convene the farmers, had even distributed copies of bond paper to the farmers that immediately after being elected to Lok Sabha he would get the board for the farmers.
Even though the farmers had played an important role in electing Arvind, the board remained a will-o’-the-wisp. Kavitha, who had lost the election had frequently carped Arvind as to what had happened to his promise.
Instead of a board, he could get a regional office of the Spices Board for Nizamabad in February 2020 which did not satisfy the farmers.
By the time the 2024 Lok Sabha elections arrived, Kavitha opted out, making way for BRS leader Bajireddy Govardhan but he finished third as Arvind did an encore and won the election. His nearest rival was Congress candidate T Jeevan Reddy.
It was felt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of setting up the national turmeric board ahead of the Assembly elections in November 2023 had set the tone for the election of Arvind in the Lok Sabha elections that followed six months later.
In fact, the announcement helped the BJP’s Dhanpal Suryanarayana win the Nizamabad Urban seat in the Assembly elections.
After the Prime Minister announced in 2023, the Union Cabinet approved the formation of the board which has to take care of the interests of the farmers.
It has to ensure that there would be adequate infrastructure and also facilities to add value to the turmeric they grow and provide them avenues for enhanced exports.
The Union government, pursuant to the cabinet decision, notified the formation of the National Turmeric Board by appointing Palle Gangareddy as its chairman on Monday, 13 January, whose term would be three years.
Speaking at the virtual inauguration of the turmeric board, Piyush Goyal said that the prime minister who gave his word in the past has kept his promise.
Describing it as the Pongal gift to turmeric farmers, he acknowledged the effort of Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind and Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kuamr in making the board a reality.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
