October 31: The farmers involved in floriculture in Chitwan are worried after the marigold flowers blossomed before Tihar.

The farmers who produce flowers for Tihar are worried that the flowers will be wasted this time as the festival falls only in mid-November, a delay caused due to the lunar calendar.

Last year, the festival of Tihar was observed during this time of year.

Seeing the high demand for flowers last year, new farmers also started flower cultivation. The flowers planted by the farmers targeting the festival of Tihar have already bloomed.

Deepak Pakhrin of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-26 said, “Tihar is yet to arrive, but the flowers have already bloomed. There is not even demand at all right now. The flowers are most likely to get withered.”

Pakhrin has planted Calcutta, Tennis, Orange ball varieties of marigold flowers in four bighas of land and other types of flowers in another two bighas. He said that even though marigold flowers are sold all year round, the flowers intended for Tihar will be wasted if they bloom early. He said, “If flowers are picked now, there is a risk that they won’t be sold; if they are not picked, they will wither by Tihar.”

He said that some farmers planted the seeds early and the flowers bloomed before Tihar. According to the farmers, Calcutta variety starts flowering in 55 days and Tennis variety starts flowering in 45 days. Within a hundred days, the flowers bloom and are ready. Ishwar Shrestha, the owner of Ujjwal Nursery located in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-7, says that the flowers bloomed early this year and the production has almost doubled. He planted flowers in an area of 1.5 bighas of land and had to pick them before Tihar and throw them away. Farmers say that marigold flowers cannot be stored for many days.

Sujata Devkota, a farmer of Bharatpur-23, said, “This flower can be stored in cold storage for 10 days, after that it will wither.” She says that although the farmers grow flowers all year round, most of them were in a hurry to plant flowers, so they bloomed before Tihar.

Sulabh Shrestha, secretary of the Floriculture Association, Chitwan said that there is a risk in the investment of farmers who cultivated flowers specifically for Tihar. He said that as in previous years, most of the farmers planted flowers in mid-June and they bloomed by mid-October. He added that although the flower production is good this year, the farmers are worried about the lack of market.