The chrysanthemums in full bloom on his one-acre farm at Dummi village in Karnataka’s Hassan district became a liability for Chandrasekhar. On Saturday, September 23, he took out a tractor with a rotatory mower and destroyed the seventhige plants — or chrysanthemums — after realizing that the harvest would not bring him any profit.
The 45-year-old farmer has 12 acres of agricultural land at Dummi, some 10 km from Arakulgud. He has been cultivating green chilies, potatoes, and cabbage on 11 acres and chrysanthemums on one acre. Chandrasekhar started floriculture five years ago and has been so far reaping a decent profit. However, he ran into bad news this Ganesha festival season when florists in the Arakulgud market told him that the flowers would fetch him only ₹10 per garland.
Price crash
“The merchants and middlemen who buy these flowers from farmers like me for ₹10 per garland transport them to Bengaluru and sell them for ₹80 to ₹85 per garland. I could earn a profit only if I could sell flowers for a garland at least at a rate of ₹40 to ₹45. Otherwise, it is a total loss,” he told South First.
Chandrashekar said the price now being offered would not even cover the production cost. He said he could plant 7,000 to 7,500 chrysanthemum saplings in an acre.
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