NIZAMABAD: The long cherished dream of the people of the district has been realised with the Centre giving its nod to the turmeric research and training unit.

Giving details at a press conference on Thursday evening, Minister for Rural Development D. Srinivas said the Government has also sanctioned Rs.2 crores in advance for the proposed unit costing Rs.13 crores. The Government would bear Rs.9.5 crores of the expenditure and the rest would be collected from the farmers.

Under the project, four centres will come up at Velpur, Armoor, Morthad and Darpally. The land allotment and extension work would be taken care of by the State Government. Each centre would have a research station and a dormitory to accommodate farmers coming for training. For research purpose 10 to 15 acres of land will be attached to the centre.

`Improve quality'

Seeking to clarify the reasons for the fall of rates for the turmeric crop, he laid the emphasis on the improvement of quality. The moisture content in the produce was reportedly high in the crop grown here compared to the Sangli crop, he added. It was revealed in the study of an official team comprising agriculture, marketing and horticulture departments which had gone to Sangli recently.

Collector I.S. Sri Naresh said farmers were incurring losses as input costs had gone high and crop was not fetching remunerative price due to high amount of moisture. High moisture was due to increase in ground water level, he said. He advised the farmers go in for export-oriented varieties.

Joint Collector G. Ramnarayana Reddy, the Indira Kranthi Patham Project Director P. Chinatataiah and other officials were present.

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