Bangarpet farmer crushes chrysanthemum crop with tractor after sharp price drop

KOLAR: With prices of flowers crashing after the festival and wedding season, a farmer in Marandahalli of Bangarpet taluk crushed his chrysanthemum yield by running a tractor over it.

Krishnamurthy had cultivated chrysanthemum in his two-acre farm. But recently, the price dropped from Rs 200 per kg to about Rs 10-20 per kg. This would not even meet the harvesting and transportation cost for farmers.

Krishnamurthy had spent about Rs1.5-2 lakh per acre to cultivate chrysanthemum. Faced with uncertainty, he decided to destroy the crop by running a tractor cultivator on the farm.

Farmers in the district have appealed to the government to come to the aid of flower cultivators and provide compensation for the loss.