Turmeric ryots hit hard by forward trading

Nizamabad: Turmeric and chilli are two commercial crops for which the government does not announce minimum support price. This has become a boon for traders who indulge in future trading through the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) and are preventing the farmers from getting higher price, the farmers of the district feel.

On Monday, 6,000 quintals of turmeric crop arrived at the Nizamabad agricultural market. All that the farmers could get was Rs 6,881 per quintal. But the chilli farmers are happy as they could get good prices at the Warangal's Yanamamula agricultural market yard where "desi" variety of chillies got them Rs 81,000 per quintal.

This became possible because chillies were removed from the forward trading list last year. Still chilli farmers say compared to last year's Rs 96,000 per quintal this year it was low. In 2016 and 2017, due to the forward contract, the prices of chilli fell drastically. Traders paid Rs 5,000 per quintal to the farmer.

During those two years, chilli farmers protested by burning large quantities of chillies in the market yards of Khammam, Yanamamula AMC Warangal and Jammikunta. Following this, chillies have been removed from the list of forward trading. Turmeric farmers told Hans India that since the formation of NCDEX in 2003, traders were lowering their rate paid to farmers though in the consumer market the prices continue to be high.

NCDEX is India's largest agricultural derivatives exchange with a market share of 75% in agricultural derivative contracts for the Financial Year ending March 2021.