The Central government has received a proposal from the government of Telangana for the establishment of a spice park in Nizamabad for turmeric. The Spices Board would extend all technical support if the land and funds for establishing the spice park were provided by the state.
The Centre also approved the setting up of a Spice Development Agency (SDA) for Telangana, having its headquarters in Warangal to co-coordinate with the state and Central agencies implementing programmes for research, production, marketing, quality improvement and export of spices, including chilli and turmeric. The government has implemented several programmes for providing assistance to spice farmers, including chilli and turmeric farmers.
On one hand, these aim to increase the production and ensure remunerative prices to farmers through pre- and post-harvest management and support activities, and on the other, assist the industry through the adoption of upgraded technology in spice processing, establishment of quality evaluation laboratories, quality certification, etc. for facilitating exports.
Spices Board is implementing the Export Oriented Production, Export Development and Promotion of Spices scheme, wherein assistance is provided to spice farmers which includes the development of infrastructure for common processing facilities in spice parks, adaptation of upgraded technology in spice processing, setting up of quality evaluation labs for sampling, testing of the export consignments to meet quality specifications of consuming countries, providing assistance to farmers on post-harvest quality improvement, imparting training to farmers in good agricultural practices, etc.