Fear of damage to turmeric crop increased due to heavy rains and floods
12-Sep-2024 06:56 PM
Guntur. The complexity of pipeline stock of turmeric is likely to increase in the coming months. Due to weak domestic production in the last season, the stock of turmeric has come down by about 25 percent compared to last year.
Meanwhile, due to heavy rains and waterlogging in the fields for a long time, damage to turmeric crop is being reported in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while heavy rains have been predicted in Maharashtra, which may damage the crop there too.
The major turmeric producing states in the country include Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Odisha etc.
According to the initial report of the Andhra Pradesh Horticulture Department, turmeric crop in an area of more than 3100 hectares in the state has already been damaged due to torrential rains and floods, while the rainy season is likely to continue further.
More than 4700 turmeric producers have been affected by this so far. Anyway, the total area of turmeric in Andhra Pradesh has reached only 15,482 hectares so far, whereas last year its total production area there had reached above 33,283 hectares.
This time in Telangana, there has been 41 percent more rainfall than the normal average. On the other hand, turmeric crop has been damaged due to heavy rains in the Marathwada division of Maharashtra during the last few days.
It is worth noting that like potatoes and onions, turmeric is also a crop grown underground, so if there is water logging in its fields for more than six days, then it starts proving fatal for it.
According to the data of the Spices Board, the total production of turmeric at the national level is estimated to fall by 5 percent to 10.70 lakh tonnes during the 2023-24 season as compared to the 2022-23 season.
Production may decrease further in the 2024-25 season. Not only this, but at the beginning of the next marketing season, the previous outstanding stock of turmeric will also be less by 10 percent. One commentator has predicted a massive drop of up to 25 per cent in turmeric stock.