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Bumper turmeric yet growers unhappy over low price

Star National Desk
Bumper yield of turmeric has turned into a burden for growers in different areas as they are facing serious losses due to unusual price fall of the popular price.
Profitable turmeric farming in Khagrachhari district seems to face a setback as serious price fall, allegedly caused by import of low-priced Indian turmeric, comes as a blow to both farmers and traders, reports our Khagrachhari correspondent.
This season, green turmeric is selling for only Tk 300 to 350 per maund (40 kg) but last year it sold for Tk 2,000 to Tk3,000, said Jamini Mohon Tripura, a farmer of Thakurchhara area under Sadarupazila.
“I cultivated turmeric in one acre of land this season spending about Tk 35,000 and harvested about 63 maunds of the spice. But I got only Tk 23,000 by selling it,” he added.
A few business companies importing low-priced Indian turmeric are responsible for the abnormal price fall, he said.
"We are counting loss of about Tk 50,000 per tonne of
dry turmeric as a large quantity of it remains unsold due to abnormal fall of price in the market. Consequently the local traders are losing interest to invest in turmeric business again," Swapon Devnath, a turmeric trader from Khagrachhari bazaar area, said.
He also blamed the import of Indian turmeric for the situation.
Sub Assistant Agriculture Officer of Khagrachhari Agriculture Extension Department Pranab Barua said farmers got bumper yield of turmeric from about 5,500 hectares of land in the district in this season.
The production season of green turmeric ranges from November to April and most of the growers have already harvested the spice due to favourable weather in this season.
The growers, who earlier eyed a good profit, are now anxious to get back their investment money.
"I took loan ofTk one lakh from Krishi Bank for investing in turmeric cultivation in my three acres of land but now I am worried to pay back the bank loan due to the unexpected price fall," said Kishore Tripura, a tur-
meric grower from Latiban area.
Sudarshan Dutta, direc-tor of Khagrachhari Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "Over 10,000 turmeric traders and a large number of farmers in eight upazilas of the district will suffer a lot if immediate steps are not taken to ensure fair price of turmeric."
Our Lalmonirhat correspondent adds: Sharp fall in turmeric prices has come as a blow to the farmers who cultivated the price on larger areas of land with hope of a good profit.
Lalmonirhat farmers are selling a kg of raw turmeric for Tk 5 to 7 in this season whereas it sold forTk 50 to 70 last year.
Encouraged by bumper production and unexpected profit last year, Lalmonirhat farmers cultivated turmeric on 3600 hectares of land this year against last year's 450 hectares of land, said offi-cials of Agriculture Extension Department in Lalmonirhat.
"I cultivated turmeric on 40 decimal of land last year. Encouraged by handsome profit that time, I have cultivated it in 102 decimal of land this year. But now I find
it difficult to recover even the production cost," said Bodiar Rahman, a farmer at Fulgachh village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.
Visiting different markets in Lalmonirhat district, this correspondent saw farmers with their turmeric waiting long hours but there are a few customers and the price unusually low.
Turmeric trader Abdus Salam at Durakuti Hat said they purchased one maund (40 kg) of turmeric between Tk 1800 to 3000 last year but they are purchasing it between Tk 200 to 300 this year as the supply in the wholesale market is much higher than the demand.
“We got supply of 300 to 400 maund of turmeric on each hat day here last year, but we getting supply 1500 to 2000 maund this year. It is the common scene at all the markets in the district,” said a small trader at Durakuti Haat in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila.
Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila agriculture officer agriculturist Mohammad Nuruzzaman said if farmers do not get marketing facilities for their production they will lose interest to cultivate it.