Hope doesn’t bloom for pandemic-hit Punjab flower growers

› I was in wholesale and retail trading of flowers but the business has nosedived since March. The demand for flowers at various religious places has also gone down

LAKWINDER RAHI, marigold grower from Bathinda

BATHINDA : Even as the peak season of festivals and marriages is approaching from September onwards, Punjab farmers are sceptical about investing on floriculture in the Unlock 3.0 phase.

They say the demand for their produce was severely hit since the coronavirus outbreak in March with many planning to suspend cultivating flowers at least this year.

Gurcharan Singh of Bathinda district’s Gill Kalan village, who started growing gerbera and other ornamental flowers in 2015, was earning moderately but he is hesitant to continue with it.

He is contemplating to switch over to cultivate vegetables in the next season.

“I started cultivating flowers by investing Rs 12 lakh besides availing as much subsidy from the state government. As the number of Covid cases is increasing in Punjab and the neighbouring states, there is uncertainty in the market. Though my gerbera plants had good harvest potential I had to suspend nurturing to avoid more losses,” he added.

State horticulture department officials said marigold, gerbera, gladiolus, carnation, rose, chrysanthemum and lily are cultivated on nearly 5,000-acre land in Punjab. Most of the floriculturists in the state are small and marginal farmers who cultivate on not more than five acres, it is learnt.

Lakwinder Rahi, who was cultivating marigold at Lal Singh Basti village, said lockdown has hit the entire supply chain. “I was in wholesale and retail trading of flowers but the business has nosedived since March. Unlike usual times, there was hardly any marriage function around the wheat harvesting season and there is no buyer in the market. The demand for flowers at various religious places has also gone down,” said Rahi.

Gurvinder Singh, who has cultivated rose on his twoacre farm near Channo village in Patiala, said he has already lost Rs 10 lakh since the lockdown was imposed.

“I used to supply rose and other varieties of flowers to different parts of Punjab besides Jaipur and Ghazipur, the hub of flower trading in Delhi. There are several farmers who had ploughed their flower fields as there is no hope to business revival in the coming months. There has been no support from the state government for floriculturists who practised crop diversification. We are staring at no less than a crisis,” he added.