Turmeric

Varieties

• More than 50 cultivars of C. domestica and C.aromatica are known and these are known by trade names based on the appearance, rhizome thickness, colour intensity, aroma and hardness of the core and duration.

• In Tamil Nadu, two cultivars viz., Erode local and Salem local have been cultivated so far in addition to local cultivar viz., Bhavani.

• It is one of the popular cultivars of Tamil Nadu with good market acceptability.
• Plants are vigorous and tall with good yield potential (30-32 t/ha).
• Fingers are short, slightly bent with a deep orange inner core, with a moderate curing percentage.
• curcumin content is 3.9 per cent.

• It is another popular cultivar of Tamil Nadu.
• The plants are vigorous and tall.
• Rhizomes are bigger and the fingers are longer than in Erode local (4 cm)
• Its yield potential is comparable with Erode local but rich in curcumin content (4.75 per cent) and moderate in curing percentage.

• Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has released so far three turmeric varieties viz., CO 1, BSR1 and BSR 2 suitable for cultivation in Tamil Nadu.

• Roma, Swarna, Sudarshana, Suguna, Sugandham, Ranga, Rashmi, Rajendra Sonia, Krishna, Suroma & Allepy finger Turmeric (AFT).

• It is a vegetative mutant from Erode local turmeric, released in 1983.
• Rhizomes are bigger sized and bright orange coloured and better than Erode local
• Plants are robust, vigorous and taller (40 to 60 cm) with more leaves (25 to 32) and tiller production (3.7 to 5.0)
• Suitable for drought and saline soils.

• It is a selection from mutant population irradiated with X-ray (from Erode local) released in 1986.
• Rhizomes are attractive with yellow fingers and closer internodes
• Rhizomes contain higher curcumin content (4.2%) than CO 1 and Erode local
• Suitable for water logged conditions

• It is a mutant from Erode local type released in 1994.
• The crop yields 32 t/ha in a shorter crop duration of 240-250 days
• The plants are medium statured (85 cm), high yielding and resistant to scale insects.
• It is suitable for Erode, Coimbatore, Salem, Dharmapuri, Trichy, Thanjavur, Vellore, Villupuram, Thiruvannamalai and Cuddalore districts.

• The culture BS 43 (5402-1-1) is an 'X'-ray irradiated (10 kr) mutant of Erode local.
• This selection proved its superiority in yield by recording 32,698 kg/ha compared to the standard variety BSR-1 (30, 381 kg/ha) accounting for 7.51 per cent increased yield.
• Besides high yield, the plants have favourable attributes like medium stature (85 cm) with more number of tillers/plant (3.9).
• It matures one to one and half months earlier (240-250 days) than the standard variety, BSR 1 (285-290 days).
• This selection is resistant to scale insect, the percentage of incidence being only 2.02 as against 49.37 recorded by BSR 1 and 45.31 by CO 1.
• Apart from raising as a pure crop, this selection can also be grown as inter crop in young plantations like coconut and arecanut.
• At Bhavanisagar, turmeric was raised as an intercrop in the coconut plantation planted at a spacing of 7.5 x 7.5 m at a density of 180 palms/ha. The yield of turmeric recorded was 2015 kg/ha.

• In addition to CO 1, BSR 1 and BSR 2, the turmeric varieties viz., Roma, Suroma, Swarna, Sudharshana, Suguna, Sugandham, Ranga, Rashmi, Rajendra Sonia, Krishna and Allepey finger turmeric are also recommended for cultivation in Tamil Nadu.

• About 50 commercial types of turmeric are cultivated in India.
• Barring 15 improved varieties, all others are land races, mostly from Andhra Pradesh or Orissa. They are classified into three types.

• Roma and Suroma from Pottangi (Orissa), CO 1 and BSR 1 from Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) and Sugandham from Jagudan (Gujarat) have been released as high yielding varieties under the All India Co-ordinated Research Project for Improvement of Spices.