Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A processing plant has renewed the faith of Jalandhar farmers in another kind of plant: turmeric. Set up recently at the initiative of a retired brigadier who himself was facing problems disposing of his turmeric crop, it is the first scientific turmeric processing machine in the district, and possibly in the state.
Jalandhar’s brush with turmeric began two years ago, when it was designated the Turmeric District by the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA). Successful experiments in 50 demonstration plants later, farmers sowed the crop across 200 acres of land. With each acre earning Rs 30,000, turmeric was a plausible alternative to the wheat-paddy cycle, so vilified by the government.
But lack of marketing initiatives and government support were causing many farmers to do a rethink. ‘‘With nobody willing to buy the raw crop, a processing plant was the only answer,’’ points out Brigadier (retd) K S Dhillon. ‘‘Turmeric has tremendous demand — after all, every Indian household uses the spice — but no one wants to buy unprocessed produce.’’
Dhillon himself had faced problems selling his turmeric crop, and knew exactly what less fortunate farmers were going through.‘‘Since poor, uneducated farmers could not be expected to set up such a plant, I did. My plant can process only 30 kg a day, but it’s a start.’’
Even as local farmers make a beeline for the machine, the ATMA supports the initiative whole-heartedly. ‘‘The processing plant shows how the marketing problem can be solved,’’ says Naresh Gulati, agricultural development and liaison officer with ATMA.
According to the Agriculture Department, though Punjab has surplus land and suitable temperatures for the crop, it still sources Rs 50-crore worth of the spice from the southern states.
