Cut-flower growers across six districts of Sirmaur, Chamba, Mandi, Kangra, Solan and Shimla have suffered heavy losses due to the pandemic and have now begun to diversify to vegetable growing. Two years of Covid pandemic and the subsequent restrictions induced by it have adversely hit the flower cultivation in Himachal Pradesh. The area under floriculture has witnessed a 47% decrease in the last five years.
Flowers were grown on 710 hectares in 2015-16, but the area has now reduced to 373 hectares. Before the pandemic, flowers grew on 705.77 hectares in 2018-19. Cut-flower growers across six districts of Sirmaur, Chamba, Mandi, Kangra, Solan and Shimla have suffered heavy losses due to the pandemic and have now begun to diversify to vegetable growing.
“Flower cultivation is no more profitable,” said Ram Gopal Thakur, a cut-flower grower and president of Flower and Vegetable Growers’ Cooperative Society. Ram Gopal, who’s been in flower cultivation for the last six years, has now shifted to bell pepper growing. “I used to grow flowers, particularly lilies, on 3,000 square meters of land but this year, I am growing them on 1,000 square meters. On the remaining land, I have cultivated bell peppers,” he added. A stick of lily is sold between ₹30 and ₹60 in the wholesale market, while the price ranges from ₹100 to ₹200 in the retail market.
Flower cultivation around Shimla had been gaining ground for the last decade, but farmers are now preferring crops to break even the losses suffered in the last two years. Chrysanthemum, carnation, gladiolus, rose, gerbera, and lilies are grown in villages close to the town’s airport at Jubbarhatti. “In last two years, we have been bearing losses. The government only gave us marginal compensation for one year,” said Khemraj Thakur of Khairi village, while claiming that as they were unable to transport flowers last year, they had to feed them to domestic animals.
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