Traditional and Modern Turmeric Cultivation Management in Belgaum District

Turmeric, the golden spice is widely cultivated in different countries such as India, China, Myanmar, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Burma, Indonesia etc. Among these countries India occupies first position in area and also in production. In India, turmeric is grown in 18 states, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal are the major turmeric producing states. Turmeric has been used medicinally throughout Asia to treat stomach and liver ailments. It is also used externally, to heal sores, and as a cosmetic. From each taluka 30 farmers were selected (15 traditional farmers and 15 modern farmers) randomly and two traditional processing units and two modern processing units were selected. Farmer's need was to educate them for cultivation of pest and disease resistant varieties of turmeric, further scientific methods of harvesting needs to be adopted in conventional farmers to get high returns. Labour availability particularly at the time of harvest and cost of labour in general were the serious problems to turmeric grower. Conventional farmers of many farm operations including planting rhizome materials and harvesting would save labour substantially in mechanisations.