A flower plot started with Tk 6,000 earned Tk 1.5 lakh a year, until Covid left blooms unsold
An Ulipur, Kurigram grower leased 50 decimals and started with Tk 6,000, earning about Tk 1.5 lakh a year. With no buyers during Covid he had to strip flowers to save the plants and could not repay loans.
This farmer from Kashiagari village in Ulipur upazila, Kurigram, leased 50 decimals of land and first started growing flowers with Tk 6,000. According to a Dhaka Times report, this earned about Tk 1.5 lakh a year and supported a family of six. The upazila's gardens grow flowers such as marigold, chrysanthemum, rose, dahlia, beli and tuberose.
During Covid, with no buyers, the flowers in the garden went unsold and dried on the plants. He said, 'I am tearing off the flowers and throwing them away to keep the plants alive. I don't know how I will repay the loan.'
Another grower in the same upazila had for twenty years taken NGO loans to grow flowers on about an acre, supporting his family by selling them on national days and at school and college gates. As soon as schools and colleges closed, sales fell, and burdened with loans he cut back his cultivation. The upazila agriculture officer said there was no government allocation for flower growers during the Covid period.
Lessons
- 1.Flower sales hang on a few occasions and events; when they stop, flowers cannot be stored and the season is lost.
- 2.If you farm flowers on loans, keep enough savings to pay instalments through a few months of closed markets.
We published this with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.
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