When the flower growers of Jhenaidah have been playing vital role in producing huge flowers amid a huge demand in the country for couple of years together, they have been facing some unavoidable problems for long. Pitiable condition of road, e specially in Jhenaidah, lack of cold stores and cooling van or suitable transport facilities for carrying the flower in Dhaka and other markets have been hampering the farming and the farmers have to incur loss sometimes, said the farmers.
When this correspondent visited Dahijuri, Ganna, Dakbangla, Narayanpur and Saganna in Jhenaidah sadar, Elangi and Sabderpur in Kotchandpur and Baliadanga and some other villages in Kaliganj upazila in Jhenaidah, the flower growers said they have been trying to send fresh flowers immediate after the harvesting from the plot to their destination for selling. But in many cases a good number of the produced flowers are more or less affected and damaged due to poor transportation facilities on the roof top of ordinary buses. Here the cooling vehicle can save the same form certain damages.
They said in many cases huge harvested flowers and damaged when they fail to send them in the selling points in Dhaka or other places due to lack of preservation in the cold stores in time. Further, huge produced are off course damaged partially when those are carried on the transports through the bad conditional road in the district.
A source related to the office of the deputy director of the department of agricultural extension (DAE) in Jhenaidah Khamarbari said the farmers sale the rose, zarberra, rajanigandha, gladiolus, marigold and some other species of flowers for an amount of Taka 300 crore a year. Ganna area in Jhenaidah sadar and Baliadanga of Kaliganj play significant role in flower farming. The farmers are Jhenaidah sadar, Kaliganj, Kotchandpur and bordering Moheshpur play role in flower farming, while the farmers of Shailkupa and Harinakundu show little interest in farming the same. Sub assistant agricultural officer (SAAO) of the DAE in Ganna Block Taposh Sarker when contacted said they have been standing by the flower farmers so that they could make the farming profitable.
Deputy director of the DAE in Jhenaidah Khamarbari Asgar Ali when contacted admitted the barriers of flower farming like bad conditional roads, no arrangement of cooling vans and setting up any cold store in the district said, this sort of limitations incur a several lakh Taka crops like flower in Jhenaidah. The farmers are not free form this sort of sufferings for couple of decades.
But the framers could be benefited more if the problems are addressed. He said the necessary steps should be taken to improve the rural Jhenaidah roads, arrange cooling transportation facilities for flowers and set up at least a cold store at Ganna or any other suitable place to save the rotten crop flower when it has been changing the lot of the farmers in south-western districts like Jhenaidah, DAE deputy director Asgar Ali said.