he long-felt need for a flower market in the town remains unfulfilled even as floriculture farmers continue to bear the brunt of escalating input cost and highly fluctuating prices of their produce, particularly marigold.
Several enthusiastic farmers those switched over to floriculture from conventional farming are reeling under a sense of uncertainty in the absence of institutionalised marketing mechanism.
They earn a reasonable income when the demand for flowers peaks during the festival season and sell their produce at throwaway price during most part of the year.
Most of the floriculture farmers are facing a piquant situation with the sharp rise in input cost and exorbitant transportation charges in shifting the produce to markets in big cities that’s eating into their income.
According to sources in the Horticulture Department, floriculture crops, predominantly marigold, crossandra infundibuliformis (kanakambralu) and jasmine, are being grown in over 400 hectares in the district.
The floriculture crops are mainly concentrated in Raghunadhapalem, Madhira, Bonakal, Sattupalli, Yerrupalem, Aswaraopeta and a few other mandals in the district.
The department has drawn up plans to encourage farmers to take up cultivation of floriculture crops under polyhouse as part of the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), sources added.
The small and marginal farmers are unable to access the subsidies being offered by the government for raising floriculture crops, deplores Ramnarsaiah, a farmer from Tutikuntla in Bonakal mandal.
In the absence of flower market in the district, the floriculture farmers of Tutikuntla, Chirunomula and other villages are compelled to take their produce to the flower market in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
They are not only incurring financial burden in transporting the produce to distant places, but also suffering losses in the process due to the highly perishable nature of the flowers, he points out. The Telangana government should set up a flower market in Khammam town and arrange a market tie-up with major temples like Bhadradri shrine and other flower consumers to help the floriculture farmers, insists Mohan, a marigold grower from Raghunadhapalem mandal.
A proposal envisaging setting up of a flower market in Khammam has been incorporated in the vision document meant for promotion of floriculture, says K. Suryanarayana, Assistant Director, Horticulture II, Khammam.
The small and marginal farmers are unable to access the subsidies being offered by the government for raising floriculture crops
Ramnarsaiah
A farmer from Tutikuntla

Source : The Hindu