On trail of Jasmine: A tale of uncertainty and indigence

Chennai: Jasmine flowers sold at Rs 180 per kg on Friday after hitting a high of Rs 450 last week. A month ago, the flowers sold for barely Rs 15 per kg due to good yield from farms around Chennai.

“There will be very less yield of flowers till February next year. We are expecting jasmine prices to touch Rs 1,200 per kg during September-October,” said Bakthavachalam, a jasmine farmer from Gummidipoondi. He added that with the change of season, pests attacked  the plants and affected yield largely. Farmers had to increase spraying of pesticides to once in three days from once in a week.

There is good demand for these flowers during festival and wedding seasons. Vendors sell them for higher rates during such occasions; when there is no demand the price drops drastically. “We fix the prices after seeing the demand and supply in the market,” said Ramanan, a flower vendor at Koyambedu.

He had been there for over 60 years now and saw no change in the way the flower market worked. “The flowers are sold to the scent factories for a very low price if there is no sale here,” he added. The vendors get 10 per cent commission of what they sell. They hade formed a ‘Chennai flower vendors association’ that catered to their needs.

Travelling further to where the jasmine flowers come from, we went to Iyer kandigai  at  New Gummidipoondi. Industries line the roads of the town. But another 10 kilometers inside, revealed the area’s agricultural potential. Crossing a stretch of mango grove, we stopped at the fragmented jasmine and marigold fields. It was 6.30 am and Sandhya was picking flowers. She called out to her mother to talk to us. With a strand of orange ‘kanagamparam’, Amulu picked flowers as she narrated her daily routine. “My daughters and I start picking flowers at 6 a.m. When there are more flowers we call some labourers for help and my husband takes them to the market in train.” She owns ten cents of land where she has over 600 plants. “There are less flowers today, we can expect 10 kg. Once in 10 days the plants bloom well,” she said.

Munusamy feels he cannot support his daughter’s dreams of becoming a police officer.  “Barely Rs 3,000-4,000 per month stays as income. Even that is not a steady income. When it rains, there are no flowers. These plants do not bloom well always,” he said.

Farmers feel that labour charges had increased after the 100 days employment scheme. The farms are irrigated through wells and borewater. It is an uphill task to get electricity connection. Farmers find the going tough as they are not sanctioned loans.