The study has been undertaken with the objectives to estimate the growth and instability in area, production and productivity of turmeric in India and Karnataka as well as to analyse the sources of instability in turmeric production. The study period was 1979-80 to 2010-11 in the case of Karnataka and 1974-75 to 2010-11 in the case of India. Compound growth rate, instability index and Hazell’s decomposition techniques were employed to fulfil the objectives. The results of the growth rate analysis revealed that the growths in area, production and productivity were found to be higher during pre- World Trade Organisation (WTO) period and the instability index for area, production and productivity were lower during post-WTO period in case of India. Whereas, in the case of Karnataka, the growth rate for production and yield were found to be higher during post-WTO period. The results of the decomposition analysis revealed that, change in the mean area and change in the mean yield were found to be the dominant source of output growth in the case of Karnataka and India respectively. The sources of change in variance in turmeric production between the two periods for turmeric were change in yield variance and change in residuals in the case of Karnataka and India respectively.