Gujarat Flower farmers appeal to Centre to tide over losses due to COVID-19 lockdown

Rajkot (Gujarat) [India], April 30 (ANI): Flower farmers in Rajkot who have been incurring losses as they are not able to send their produce to the market due to the coronavirus lockdown, have appealed to the Central government for financial assistance. These farmers say they have lost thousands of rupees as the demand of flowers has dipped due to the closure of all the religious places and ban on public gatherings put in place to stem the spread of the lethal infection. Now, these 500-odd farmers have appealed to the Central Government to provide them relief packages to help them tide over these testing times. "Nobody is buying our flowers. All the yield is getting wasted. The government should announce a relief package and help us," said Mavji Bhai, a farmer, while speaking to ANI. A couple of weeks ago, the Centre extended the nationwide lockdown till May 3. (ANI)