TTD rejects GCC's 12-tonne cashew consignment

Tirupati: Gaps in the procurement and quality-checking system for tribal cashew have come to light after the TTD rejected 12 tonnes of cashew nuts supplied from Parvathipuram Manyam for use in Srivari Prasadam.

The consignment, supplied by the Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC), was subjected to random sampling at the TTD Food Analysis Laboratory in Tirumala. Tests showed that the cashew failed to meet the prescribed specifications on several counts, including moisture content, grading, nut size and the percentage of broken kernels.

Following the test results, TTD officials rejected the entire consignment and made it clear that only ingredients meeting the required quality standards would be allowed into the temple’s food supply chain.

The action assumes significance in view of the instructions issued by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to maintain strict quality standards for ingredients used in the preparation of Srivari Prasadam. The TTD has been intensifying checks on incoming supplies to prevent sub-standard material from being used in prasadam preparation.

The rejection has, however, raised questions over the manner in which processed cashew is procured in the tribal areas. Cashew is cultivated extensively by tribal farmers in the ITDA regions of Parvathipuram and Seethampeta. Despite this, the local procurement mechanism had sourced the processed cashew through private traders instead of directly procuring it from the farmers.

Another issue that has come to the fore is the absence of a mandatory quality test at the district level before the consignment was dispatched to Tirupati. As a result, the quality of the cashew was not independently verified before it reached the TTD, leaving the temple authorities to detect the deficiencies only after conducting their own tests.

The rejection has also created a problem for the GCC, which is now left with the entire stock. The corporation is learnt to be making efforts to sell the rejected cashew in the private market to recover the cost of the consignment.

Farmers and agricultural activists have urged the authorities to strengthen facilities for processing, grading and testing cashew in the tribal regions. They said better infrastructure would enable farmers to produce and process quality cashew that meets the requirements of institutional buyers such as the TTD. They also called for a procurement system that gives tribal farmers greater access to institutional markets while ensuring quality checks at the source itself. Such a mechanism, they said, could prevent rejection of consignments at the final stage and reduce losses for both farmers and procurement agencies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pradeep Vennelakanti

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