Lack of government support amid COVID lockdown devastates floriculture sector

On 1 May, Bipin Rawat, the chief of defence staff, announced that the Indian Air Force would shower petals on hospitals handling the COVID-19 pandemic, among other such activities by the armed forces, “to thank all the corona warriors.” Two days later, as the armed forces’ activities were hailed as morale boosters, one question was missing from the celebratory discourse: How have the floriculture industry, and the farmers and retailers dependent on the sector fared during the lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus? As Akhilesh Yadav, a farmer who cultivates flowers in Kapashera, in the National Capital Region, told me, “My crops are sown from October and sold from February to June. But today, because of the lockdown, our work is completely finished. And it will not resume anytime soon.”

The nationwide lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus, which began on 25 March, is currently in the third phase. The flower-growing season begins as soon as the monsoon gets over and the selling season runs from December to June. During this time, the lack of demand due to a ban on social gatherings of any form, closed markets and complete disruption of supply-chain logistics, has compelled farmers to destroy standing crops. Kamalwanshi, an agricultural economist at the Banaras Hindu University, summed up their problems as, “The farmers put all their savings in the harvest that is now standing in the fields. They will not get anything for this crop and all this capital, which is often the accumulated savings of these farmers, is gone with this harvest. So, neither does he have anything now and nor will he have anything for the future.” He added that “keep in mind, this sector is entirely unorganised. There is no way to quantify the actual damage caused to the people.”

I spoke to several farmers engaged in floriculture in the regions in and around the NCR. There are hundreds of families with farmers in this sector who migrated from their villages across the country to make a living here. Their produce included Dahlia, Statice Flowers, Sweet Belia, Sunflowers, Sapphire, Chrysanthemums and Yellow Daisy, which would be sold in the domestic market and exported. Majority of the farmers I spoke to said that they had hoped that the lockdown would open on 3 May, because they would still have part of the selling season to make up some of the losses. But with the second extension, announced on 1 May, those hopes were dashed. As the farmers destroy their crops, the community is now staring at a livelihood crisis. Most of them said that they have lost all their savings and capital, and will have to return to their native villages just to survive. They did not own the land they cultivated and would be out of the purview of government aid. The condition of flower sellers and retailers, majority of who fall under the unorganised sector, is as destitute.

Rajesh Kumar Maurya is from Mohenganj, a village in the Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh. He lives in Gurgaon, which is a part of Haryana and falls under the NCR. “I have three acres of farmland which I rented. I pay Rs 1,15,000 as rent per year. I had ordered flower saplings worth Rs 80,000 from Kolkata,” Maurya said. “It takes lakhs of rupees to get the land ready—labour, electricity, water, pesticides, weeding. We have lost it all in this lockdown. I have harrowed part of my field, the rest I have left fallow. We thought that if the lockdown opens on 3 May then we might have some hope. Now that hope, too, is gone. We have been completely destroyed.” Maurya said he did not know how he would feed his family because he would “not get anything even from the government since I do not own the land. Whatever comes will go to the landowner. I was the owner of the crop but no one is talking about that.”

Yadav is originally a resident of Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh and the land he cultivates in Kapashera is rented. Yadav told me that he came to Delhi in 1998. “A lot of people from the villages surrounding mine also came here. But we have never faced such a loss before.” He said that the ban on all parties, marriages, weddings and big events meant that there was no hope of any earnings in the coming months, too. He told me, “I destroyed produce worth lakhs from my entire two acres. We did not know what else do to. I think I will have to return home, back where I came from in 1998.” He, too, said that they had received no help, or even assurances, from the government.

Rajesh Rajput told me he moved to Delhi 20 years ago, from a small village called Gondi, in the Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh. Rajput said that his entire family of eight people worked two acres of land that he had rented at Rs 70,000 per year. “Seven of them have gone back home, I am the only one left here on our farm.” Rajput said he was even having trouble managing daily meals. “Food has become my biggest problem,” he said. Rajput told me that this year, he had sourced all the saplings from Kolkata. “All our hard work was destroyed. I do not have any option but to go back home. I do not know what is going to happen as this government has not helped us at all.”

Omprakash Lodhi farms flowers in Kapashera, in Gurgaon, and is originally a resident of Amethi. He told me that in his area of Kapashera there are about two hundred families, all from Uttar Pradesh, who live and farm flowers. “We supply flowers to Delhi and all over the country. We sell our flowers at Ghazipur Flower Market and before that I used to sell directly at the Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place.” Lodhi said that he “ran a tractor over two acres of flowers that I had grown. I have incurred a loss of almost five lakh rupees.” He, too, complained that those who grow flowers had been ignored by the government. “Nobody is listening to our problems nor has our plight reached the government.” Lodhi also said that he would not be entitled to any compensation since he did not own the land he farmed. “I have two children; one is in class ten and the other in class eight. How will I pay their fees of Rs 4,000 a month when I cannot even manage to feed them now?”

Kamalwanshi, the agricultural economist, explained, “The demand for flowers lasts only a short season. In addition, you cannot keep them for too long and the older they get, their value decreases. Compared to other crops, the risk factor is far higher in flowers. The life cycle of flowers is such that you need labour suited to it, which can work speedily. Now, because of coronavirus, these problems have increased.”

He broke down the issues caused by the lockdown as a supply and demand quandary. “One is supply, where all movement to and fro completely stopped. Because of this, the farmer could not harvest the standing flowers. And now, that harvest is useless as it’s spoiled. Even if the farmer managed to harvest it, where would he take it?” He continued, “On the other hand, demand too has completely dried up. It will take time to open up all the places where flowers were used—temples, shrines, marriages, weddings. Both the supply and demand of flowers is finished. All the people who work with flowers—the poor who buy and sell them, the farmers who produce them, and the labour which would cart and break them—all of them have become destitute. And the recovery for this sector will take time. First the lockdown will open, then religious gathering and weddings and parties will start and that too will take time. Even then it is unlikely that the demand for flowers will be as before.”

To give an idea of the scale of the damage to the sector, he said, “The flower market of Benaras is a small one. But even here, the market sees trade of around twenty lakh rupees daily. During the wedding seasons or religious seasons, this can go up to almost three crore rupees a day. Extrapolate this and imagine the scale of the loss to the industry.”

The unorganised labour in the floriculture industry includes labourers across the spectrum— farmers, decorators at events, bouquets and garland makers and sellers at religious places, metro stations, railway stations, parks, bus stations, loaders, carters, transporters.

Daya Ram Lodhi, who works in the Ghazipur flower market, told me that this period is extremely critical for the industry. “Every day, thousands of farmers and buyers come here. This is the season of maximum flowers. We get flowers from different parts of India, we supply flowers to all parts, and we also go and buy flower fields on lease at many places. This January, I leased a flowers’ farm in Himachal Pradesh for Rs 80 lakh. My two sons are there taking care of it but I have lost everything.” He added, “With this lockdown and the social distancing which will be required, there will be no demand in the markets anytime soon. It seems like farmers will not be able to cultivate flowers for a long time.”

Pawan Kumar, a flower decorator for events who lives and works in Agra, told me, “In this season, almost twenty labourers work with me during events. This labour is mostly from Agra, but for big events we would call labour from as far as Delhi and even Kolkata.” He said, “The labourers who worked with me made almost fifteen thousand rupees a month. But now, we are all in a very bad state, some of them are stuck and want to go back home. And it seems like the flower decoration work will not start for a long time to come.”

Kamalwanshi told me, “This is the state of labourers all over the country, who are trapped and have no money. They feel that the only way they will survive is to get home.” He added, “We have to understand. This is the only reason why they are running back to their villages—they are running to stay alive.”