CHENNAI: Bhagya Lakshmi, a floriculture farmer from Mavoor village in Tiruvallur, cultivates jasmine on her 50 cents of land. This is the only source of income for her family of five. But she now faces huge losses as the lockdown this summer, which is the peak harvest season, ruined her sales. However, she sees a ray of hope as the State government allowed temples to reopen from Monday.
For the second year in a row, floriculture farmers were hit hard, reporting losses of 80-90 per cent. Farmers in Tiruvallur grow jasmine, marigold and tuberose and are major suppliers to the Koyembedu flower market. Express recently visited several villages in Poondi block of Tiruvallur, where flower cultivation is undertaken on over 100 hectares, and found that flowers on several acres of land were left to wilt.
Lakshmi, however, was busy harvesting jasmine flowers. But instead of putting them for sale, she was throwing them on the ground to rot. “We can’t leave the flowers on the plant as the buds would get damaged. The peak season for jasmine is March to June. One kg of Jasmine is sold for Rs 150-200, but because of Covid and the lockdown, the price fell to Rs 40-50. At this rate, it isn’t feasible for us to transport the flowers to Koyambedu. So we’re just maintaining the plants and waiting for the demand to pick-up,” she told Express in the second week of June.
During the first wave of the pandemic, Lakshmi and other jasmine growers made some money as perfume manufacturers bought their flowers. But this year, as rural areas were equally affected by the pandemic, perfume manufactures didn’t place any orders with them.
Among the floriculture farmers, the worst affected were marigold cultivators. Sendurkumaran, a marigold farmer, said: “We lost everything. This is a seasonal crop. We begin cultivation in January and harvest the flowers in March-April. Just when the flowers blossomed, the lockdown began. So we just left them to wilt. I suffered a loss of about Rs 2 lakh.” He added that the closure of temples and downsizing of weddings caused a reduction in demand.
P Vijayakanth, assistant horticulture officer in Poondi block, acknowledged that floriculture farmers have suffered massive losses. “However, with the recent lockdown relaxations, the demand has increased and the price of jasmine is now Rs 100-150 per kg. With temples reopening, the demand of tuberose will also increase,” he added.
The officer said the horticulture department is doing its best to help the farmers, giving them free saplings and other logistic support to market their produce. Meanwhile, farmers have demanded setting up perfume or allied industries in the district to aid the flower growers.