No turmeric auctions were held at any of the four sales centres here on Wednesday because of a meeting to resolve the ongoing pricing dispute between traders and farmers.
District Revenue Officer S. Ganesh conducted the meeting. P.K. Deivasigamani, Chairman of Federation of Turmeric Farmers Associations, represented the growers and R.K.V. Ravishankar, President, Erode Turmeric Traders Association, the traders.
After the two-and-a-half hour meeting, both agreed to conduct auctions in the presence of an officer deputed by the Joint Director of Agriculture.
Hereafter, along with the turmeric samples, farmers’ mobile numbers will also be provided.
Moreover, farmers may be allowed to visit the trader’s godown.
Once a week, the supervising officer appointed by the Revenue Divisional Officer will inspect records containing details of arrivals, sales and prices quoted.
Since Monday, farmers have been demanding at least Rs 9,000 a quintal for turmeric. This was after a conference of Federation of Turmeric Farmers Associations decided on Saturday not to sell below Rs 9,000 a quintal and to request the Union Government to allow the farmers to fix the sale price.
Traders have refused to accept the demand and on Tuesday, more than a quarter of the farmers sold the spice for less than Rs 7,000 a quintal.
Some federation members tried to force farmers who sold at such low prices not to confirm stocks for sale.
Infuriated by this, traders urged the Collector and the Superintendent of Police not to allow Federation or farmers’ association representatives into the auction hall.
Following this, a meeting of both parties was called for to break the impasse.