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| COVID-19 hits flower growers; J&K admin fails to provide help | | |  Arun Jasrotia
Early Times Report
Udhampur, June 19: The flower growers of Udhampur district have urged the Government of India as well as administration of Jammu & Kashmir to provide financial support for farmers as their business has been impacted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Marigold growers in Panchayat Chattari in Majalta block have incurred huge losses following the Covid-19 lockdown as there is no demand for the flowers. Even last year, marigold flowers were ready for harvest in March when the country went for a lockdown. The flowers were not harvested and left in the field. The situation continued even this year also.
“Without buyers, flowers are getting dried up in the fields. Following the lockdown, the temple fairs and other auspicious programmes have been suspended. As a result, there is no demand for flowers,” said Vijay Kumar Verma, farmer from Panchayat Chattrari.
Now our crop has been completely destroyed in the field due to no demand anywhere, who will compensate us? I plead the Governments and Department of Floriculture to keep in mind our interest also, he said.
“The lockdown has hit farmers hard. As mandis and shops of stockists and retailers are closed, the demand for flowers in this wedding season has collapsed. There is no certainty as to how long these restrictions will continue. Hence, traders, exporters, are also not taking any risk,” said Vijay.
Arjun Singh Parihar, Assistant Floriculture Officer Udhampur/ Reasi /Ramban said that there are 314 registered flower growers in the district, but very few grew flowers due to COVID-19 Pandemic. He said that a detailed estimated damage report has been submitted to the higher officials and compensation would be given to the farmers as per the government rules. |
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