Farmer runs tractor over half-acre blanket flower crop in Koppal district due to low prices

KOPPAL: Stung by the steep fall in prices, two farmers, who had cultivated Gaillardia, also known as blanket flower (galate hoovu), destroyed the standing crop by running a tractor over the plants.

Farmer Moulahussain Mahabubsab had cultivated Gaillardia flowers on one acre and had spent Rs 50,000 on it. He had hoped that the festival season will give him good returns. However, after Dasara, the prices of flowers have drastically fallen.

The farmer pulling out the plants cultivated on the farmland.

Traders are also not interested in buying the produce and farmers are getting only Rs 5-10 per kg. There have also been instances where farmers dumped their produce on the road due to low prices.

“We did not get good prices after Dasara and the crop will not last till Deepavali. We dumped one quintal in Koppal. We had a good crop, but prices are low”, Mahabubsab, who had cultivated the flowers in half an acres of his land, said.

His brother Rajasaheb, who had aslo cultivated the crop in half fan acre, said, “There are no buyers and we just left one quintal with a trader and returned. Even during Dasara, we did not get good prices. We plan to take up cultivation of maize or groundnut”, he said.