pune

Updated: Jul 29, 2017 11:51 IST

With the festival season round the corner, farmers from Pune district appealed to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to ban plastic flowers which come from China to Pune as they negatively affect their Gerbera flower farms. The farmers allege that they do not get good prices for natural flowers.

Farmers from Khed, Shivapur and Aarvi village met mayor Mukta Tilak, municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar and other office bearers and demanded to pass a proposal to help the farmers. Earlier, the PMC had passed a proposal to ban thermocol plates and plastic carry bags below 50 micron in the city.

The farmers said that since plastic flowers are not biodegradable, the municipal corporation can take such a decision and appealed to citizens to use natural flowers during the upcoming festival time.

The farmers under the leadership of MNS corporator Vasant More met PMC office bearers and requested them to help the farmers.

Farmer Ajit Pawar and Manish Navgune from the Khed, Shivapur and Aarvi village said that many farmers from their villages erected polyhouses to plant gerbera flowers. Pawar said, “Earlier they were getting Rs20 to Rs50 per dozen for the flowers. It is mainly used for decorations and marriage functions. But now they are getting Rs5 to Rs10 per dozen for the flowers. The input cost is higher than the price of the flowers. Most of the farmers have taken a loan to undertake gerbera farming and now they are not able to repay the bank’s EMI.”

Sale of flowers is high during Ganeshotsav but with plastic flowers coming in large quantity, citizens prefer to buy them.

More said that the municipal commissioner assured the farmers that the administration will check the legality of such a proposal. Farmers also met the Dagadusheth Halwai Ganapati Temple and appealed to them to use natural flowers during the festival season, said More.