No buyer, flowers crushed for use as animal feed

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,April 22

Carnation and lilies are rotting in the fields. In the absence of demand and transportation, floriculturists in the Chail valley have no option but to crush the flowers for use as animal feed or manure.The flowers could not be sent to the wholesale Ghazipur flower market, which supplies flowers to Delhi and other places in the North, owing to the lockdown.

Chail’s non-descript Mahog village, with 10 families, is acclaimed for quality flowers. Nearby Jhajha and Mihani villages too grow flowers in abundance. As many as100-150 floriculturists in the valley, who have been in the business since the past about 25 years, are in dire straits.

Kuldeep Thakur, a second-generation grower, says: “March 15 marks the beginning of the peak season when crop is harvested every alternate day whereas in winters flowers bloom after 7-10 days.The growers were looking forward to selling the flowers in Delhi and Ghazipur markets.”

Grown under controlled conditions in poly houses, the flowers are now being crushed along with stem to be used as animal feed or farm manure. Thakur puts the losses this season at about Rs 15 lakh. The last truckload of flowers, he says, left on March 17. “Since then, there has been no business.”