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National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (www.ncdex.com) has established two Turmeric Assaying facilities in Tamil Nadu through one of its CSR initiatives called “PARAKH”, with the support of MYRADA. These facilities are expected to fill up a major gap between the markets and the producers by letting them know the exact proportion of curcumin that different varieties of turmeric possess. As curcumin is credited for most of the virtues of turmeric, these facilities could prove to be a major facilitator for the producers to get exposure to foreign markets because there has been an increasing requirement for turmeric from international markets, especially from the medicine and packaged food industries.
The 2 testing units have been set-up at Perundurai and Gobichettipalayam blocks in Erode as these blocks are major hubs for trading in turmeric and witness hundreds of tonnes of the commodity per season. Apart from the host blocks, the labs shall be used by farmers from Andhiyur, Sathyamangalam, Chamrajnagar, Erode, Modukuruchi and Sivagiri along with Tirupur and Karur districts. Harmonisation of quality standards and availability of an assaying infrastructure for turmeric will also enable producers to integrate with eNAM, since quality assaying is a key requirement to participate on the platform.
NCDEX, as one of the leading commodity exchanges is always committed towards benefiting its stakeholders in agriculture value chain system and strives to further strengthening commodities market. The CSR Policy of the Exchange is also aimed at implementing welfare measures in the society by addressing the concerns of the marginalized section of the agrarian community. The Exchange believes in connecting people to markets, and endeavours to reach out to underserved communities to help them gain appropriate knowledge, skills and facilities.
Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is widely used in Indian recipe for getting colour. But lately, it has been fast popularized as health product due to its powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Turmeric belongs to the family of Zingiberaceae. India not only produces 80% of the total world production, but is also the producer of most potent crop as it contains the highest curcumin content among all other turmeric producer countries. Curcumin is a small molecular weight polyphenolic compound and lipophillic in nature. This active constituent of turmeric is isolated from curcuma longa and it provides colour to turmeric. Curcumin has various medicinal properties and shows Anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anticancer activities. It has been observed that the chemical composition of most of the herbs changes with geographical region which may be due to climatic conditions and biochemical variations.
Turmeric is sold in the market yards in various grades. These grades are decided by the physical appearance, random sample weight, colour, texture and aroma of a particular lot. But these parameters are taken into account very subjectively. Now, after getting the turmeric assaying labs with curcumin testing facility, farmers in the area will have, for the first time, an option to get their crops tested on the basis of internationally recognized scale of quality that is curcumin. The assaying facilities will create awareness among farmers about curcumin and once familiar with the benefits, they would adopt practices for producing the commodity with higher curcumin content. The initiative will also educate them on the crop varieties and post-harvest practices in order to make their output suitable for bulk buyers and the food processing industry. Farmers will be given exposure to the techniques of evaluating/ testing the quality of the commodity in order to encourage them to adopt measures to produce turmeric of superior quality.
The assaying unit established at Gobichettipalayam will provide service to Sathy, Gobichettipalayam, Nambiyur, Anthiyur, Bhavani and Talavadi Taluks of Erode district. In addition, the farmers from Chamrajnagar district in Karnataka will also make use of this facility. Similarly, the Perundurai assaying unit will extend services to Erode, Perundurai, Modakurichi and Kodumudi taluks of Erode district. Farmers from the neighbouring districts of Namakkal, Salem, Karur and Tirupur shall also be benefited from this facility. This assaying unit will impact approximately, 3000–4000 turmeric farmers, as according to an estimate. In a long run, there is a possibility for marketing the crop to exporters and international buyers through the institutions like Commodity Groups / FPOs promoted in these regions.
