Weeklong Onam Celebration in Kerala, which usually carries flowers and vegetable farmers in the adjacent MySuru and Chamarajanagar district, have turned out to be a wet squib this year with a request for covid-induced restrictions.
The imposition of weekend lockers and restrictions on celebrations in Kerala have achieved celebrations and farmers feel pinches.
Onam will be celebrated for 10 days since August 21.
People usually decorate their homes, offices, and their companies with Rangoli and flowers and cooking various vegetarian dishes.
Anticipating a surge in demand during festivals, flowers and vegetables of farmers in Chamarajanagar and MySuru usually foster large amounts of flowers such as marigold, chrysanthemum and others, besides vegetable trucks.
But this year, more than 3,700 floriculture farmers, who jointly process more than 2,800 hectares in two districts, have suffered huge losses.
Some of them grow flowers and vegetables as hyprop together with sugar cane, but special orders have declined and demand for their products lacking.
“Usually, hundreds of trucks carry out results from APMC in MySuru, Gundlupet, Chamarajanagar, Nanjijanagar and Hunsur Head to Kerala, but this year only pickup vehicles carry production across the border,” Mahadeva Swamy, APMC commission agent in Mysore.
Kurubur Shanthakumar, a farmer leader, said interest requires large investments and farmers shaken in losses due to wedding restrictions and entered the temple over the past year.
“The government must produce alternative steps to ensure marketing facilities, cold storage and transportation logistics,” he said.
But Rudresh, District Horticulture officials, said the interest processing unit in two open districts and farmers can supply them.