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Turmeric (Curcuma longa) which is also referred as ‘Indian Saffron” is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae and grows in the same hot and humid tropical climate. The rhizome is a deep bright yellow color and similar in size and form to the ginger rhizome. The plant originated in the Indian sub-continent and today India is the worlds leading producer and consumer of turmeric. Turmeric plays an important role in Indian culture and widely used in many religious rituals as a good omen. It is an essential ingredient of curry and also widely used as a cosmetic, a cloth dye and in many traditional health remedies.

Steps In Turmeric Production

The Turmeric plant is propagated by planting pieces of the previous season’s rhizome, which grows to form plants of about 0.9 meters tall. The plant has long stemmed leaves and pale yellow flowers and requires a loamy soil.

Harvesting
Turmeric is harvested when the plants are between 7 and 10 months of age, when the stems and leaves start to dry out and die back. The whole plant is removed from the ground, taking care not to cut or bruise the rhizomes.

Sweating
The leaves are removed from the plant and the roots carefully washed to remove soil. Any leaf scales and long roots are trimmed off. The side branches which are also known as the fingers of the rhizomes are removed from the main central bulb known as the mother. The mothers and fingers are heaped separately, covered in leaves and left to sweat for one day. The mothers are the preferred material for planting the following year.

Curing
Before drying, the turmeric rhizomes have to be cured. This involves boiling the roots to soften them and remove the raw odor. After curing, the starch is gelatinized, which reduces the drying time required, and the color is uniformly distributed throughout the rhizome. It is generally boiled in plain water for 45 minutes until froth appears at the surface and the typical turmeric aroma is released. Using this method, the color will deteriorate if the rhizomes are boiled for too long. However, if not boiled for long enough, the rhizome will be brittle.  The benefits of curing turmeric include the following: Reduction of drying time

·         More even color distribution throughout the rhizome
·         A more attractive and uniform product that is easier to  
          polish
.         Sterilization of the rhizomes before drying.

Raisins are basically dry grapes and they are widely known as khismis which is a dry fruit. Sangli & Nashik districts of Maharashtra grow large quantities of grapes and many farmers grow grapes especially for making raisins due to good demand, better returns and fairly longer shelf life as compared to raisins. They are consumed directly as a dry fruit or are also used in large quantities in many productions for favor in bread, cake, sweet and deserts.

Harvesting of grapes start from January and ends by May every year. During early years raisins were dried on plants itself which was a crude method resulting in wastages. However these days a new method known as Australian Method has been introduced successfully in Sangli & Nashik district of Maharashtra. In this method fully grown ripe and good quality grapes are separated and put on huge drying racks after dipping them in preservatives. These drying racks are made of fabricated steel structures covered by galvanized sheets and are located in open fields where the day temperature is very high in the range of 38-42 Degree Celsius and the climate is dry with minimum possible humidity. The drying time required for grapes to be transformed to raisins is 10 to 12 days depending upon the actual temperature.

The dry grapes produced on the racks are then passed through small machines to remove the stem or stem caps from the grapes and to blow the dust and other debris form the raisins. These raisins are further passed through a grader which has 3 sieves of different wire meshing connected to a vibrator for grading raisins on basis of its size. The raisins separated over each sieve are collected in different chambers and packed in cartons of 15 Kg with poly bags inside. Some farmers also get the raisins manually sorted on the basis of its color for gaining premium price for the lot of uniform colored raisins.

The packed cartons are then transferred to cold-storages where they are stored under controlled temperature .The farmers sell the goods in markets as an when there is good demand for raisins and the prices are good or when they are in need of funds.

The raw turmeric fingers which is procured form farmers is brought to the processing units from markets .These fingers have some % of moisture in it which is usually high in the initial part of the season when the new arrivals just start and reduces considerable as the season progresses. If the moisture exceeds certain limit it may affect the final quality of the product .Hence on arrival of raw turmeric fingers in the processing unit they are  spread on big concrete platforms for sun drying for 2- 3 days depending on the  moisture content in it.

Once the fingers are properly dried they are passed through a de-stoner machine to remove stones and other extraneous matter present in it . After cleaning the fingers are graded on the basis of its size either by using a sizer or manually depending on the final quality required. On grading the whole lot gets divided into 3 qualities on basis of its size i.e. Small, Medium & Big Fingers. The big and medium fingers are supplied to local market after polishing where as small fingers are used for making powder.

The graded turmeric fingers are polished by putting them in heavy wooden drums of capacity 1 M.Ton eachand roataded fir 4-5 hours as per the quality required.Due to the rotation a friction is created by rubbing of fingers with each other and the upper layers of Turmeric gets peeled off which gives a good appearance and shining to the turmeric fingers.

After polishing the big & medium fingers they are packed in jute bags dispatched to the clients for sale in local market or to exporters as per their requirements where as small polished fingers are are transferred to grinding section for making powder.

The polished small sized turmeric fingers are further passed through a hammer mill where in they are grounded to fine powder. If turmeric fingers are grinded as its is without any polish there will be black spots visible in the powder which is not the case if the fingers are polished.

The grounded turmeric powder is passed through a 80 Mesh sieve and the final powder is stored in big tanks where it is allowed to cool. Once the powder cools down it is packed in bags as per client requirement and dispatched to the desired locations.  

Sangli city boasts a secret gained through centuries old practice of storing turmeric in pits which stretch far out in the open fields of the villages of Haripur and Sangalwadi. After clearing the loose soil covering the pit, it is left open for about two to three hours. One cannot enter the pit until one finds out if there is any oxygen within which is ascertained by lowering a lantern into the pit. If the lantern does not go out, it is safe to enter the pit. It was this ingenious storage system, devised over 200 years ago, that turned Sangli into a major trading centre for turmeric. Raw turmeric sold by farmers is stored in these pits, eighteen to twenty feet deep, for three to four years. The pits provide the best storage facility for turmeric, as the quality of the commodity remains unchanged. The turmeric hardens and matures while in storage.