Covid-19 lockdown shuts the door on Karnataka’s rural economy as it becomes too bad for business

To contain the Covid-19 pandemic, the 21-day lockdown across India, has hit Karnataka’s vibrant rural economy hard. Milk producers, flower cultivators, sericulturists, fruit and vegetable growers and many others who survive on daily income are facing many unspeakable difficulties in almost every district of the state.

After Gujarat in India, Karnataka is the second largest milk producer. Due to a huge drop in demand Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), the state-run dairy behemoth collection centres at many villages have stopped functioning. Thousands of litres of milk are dumped into tanks, lakes and even rivers by the producers who survive on selling milk to the KMF.

Nagaraja, a milk producer from the Shimoga district said, “Our collection centre is not taking our milk. Says there is no demand. We survive on daily income. Situation is getting worse.” This is happening due to no demand for milk as all commercial activities had come to a complete halt.

Many producers are demanding that the KMF should collect milk and turn it into dairy products for the future to save them from going bankrupt.

Many flower cultivators of Karnataka are facing the same problem as the milk producers. The state Karnataka is the largest cultivator of flowers in India and planeloads of freshly cut flowers are exported to West Asia and Europe, on a daily basis. The flowers from here are also exported to the rest of India including Delhi. Which is why, since there is no demand, helpless flower cultivators are destroying their produce in the field.

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