The Udupi Mallige Belagarara Sangha has sought more compensation from the State government for growers of Udupi Mallige, which enjoys Geographical Indication (GI) tag, for the losses suffered during the lockdown owing to COVID-19 pandemic.
While welcoming the State government’s relief package for flower growers, it stated that this was not enough for Udupi Mallige growers.
According to the Department of Horticulture, Udupi Mallige is grown on 116 hectares of land. The annual production of Udupi Mallige is 863.55 tonnes and its value is estimated at ₹ 120 crore.
As per the crop survey carried out by the department, there are 1,300 jasmine growers in the district. However, according to the sangha, there are about 10,000 jasmine growers.
Sangha president Ramakrishna Sharma told The Hindu that the government had announced a relief or compensation of ₹ 25,000 per hectare for flower growers. But the cost of cultivating one plant of Udupi Mallige was ₹ 1,000 per year. This made the relief grossly inadequate, he said.
“Instead, the government should provide relief on the basis of per-plant-cultivated. It should provide a relief of ₹ 1,000 per jasmine plant. Then only it will help growers to recover the loss they have suffered during lockdown,” he said.
Meanwhile, Assistant Director of Horticulture Guruprasad said that the department had estimated the loss to growers during lockdown (till May 31) at ₹ 16 crore.