Hit by Nisarga, Polyhouse Growers of Pune district are uncertain about their recovery

Pune: With impending monsoon and migrant labourers crisis due to the lockdown, cyclone Nisarga hit polyhouse growers in Maval and Khed talukas of Pune district are unsure about their road to recovery. They fear that it will a minimum of six months for them to start again.

The Nationwide lockdown due to the ongoing pandemic had badly hit the farmers who were involved in the floriculture. With no domestic demand and export being halted, these growers were already facing problems, expresses uncertainty over the production.

"Floriculture was not included in the essential services and therefore during the lockdown, the export was completely halted. Even there were hardly any festivities or marriages so there was not much domestic demand which had already jolted the growers. During the lockdown, every day we had to dump 30,000 stems of roses. As things were moving back to normal after the lockdown was relaxed, this cyclone Nisarga has damaged everything from crops to the polyhouse structure leaving us with nothing," said Hussain Saboowala, a polyhouse growers of rose and bell-pepper in Maval and Khed. 

As per the initial reports, the total affected area was 7,874 hectares in Pune district. However, Polyhouses and shed-nets of 317 farmers in 87 villages of Purandar, Junnar, Shirur, Ambegaon, Khed, Haveli, Velha, Maval and Mulshi talukas were also damaged. 

He further said, "As monsoon is approaching, it is unlikely that we will be able to fix our polyhouse in time. The damage is so huge that even if we try to fix, we will be able to fix only 50 per cent of polyhouse structure in the coming three months. However, with the rainy season approaching, it is not possible." 

Highlighting the problem of migrant labourers, Saboowala said,  "There is also a problem of labourers as well as most of these workers are from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. All these migrant labourers have gone to their hometown and not keen on coming back. Even if we want to bring workers from another district of the state, there are still permission required which is also a big hassle. With all these conditions and lack of assurance about the future in this pandemic situation, the future is very bleak."

He further informed that the average cost of polyhouse project per square metre is Rs 844. he said, "I have a polyhouse farm of roses and bell peppers of 10 acres in Maval taluka which is almost destroyed causing a loss of around Rs 25 lakhs. I also have a farm in Khed which got damaged but the damage in Maval is huge."

Another polyhouse grower of roses,  Idrees Saifee, Director of Vibrant Fresh Farm LLP said, “My two polyhouse structures of roses are completely damaged costing a loss of around Rs 80 lakhs. Entire crops have been damaged and with the rainy season coming, and unavailability of labourers as most of them are from UP, Bihar have gone to their hometown due to the pandemic. It will take another six months for us so to complete the repair work and start all over again."