Fancy a selfie with sunflowers? A Begur farmer is earning quick bucks by letting tourists take selfies on his farm. He earned about Rs 40,000 in the holiday weekend.
Begur village is in Gudlupet taluk in Karnataka on NH 766. Small-scale farmers in the area grow the crop for a living. And like any other farmer's tale in India, the crops have failed the lot due to lack of rains. Though the good early rains had put smiles back farmers' faces, a dry spell followed much to the dismay of the lot.
The highway sees tourists heading for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Mysuru on a daily basis. And many would drop by the sunflower farms to click pictures. Despite the financial crunch, Kuma, 42, who cultivated sunflower in his six-acre land, is monetising his produce in a different way. After his plea to people to stop entering his field turned futile, he started charging Rs 20 per person to click selfies on the farm.
But everything comes with a price as some destroy a few plants while a few others, despite his appeals, pluck flowers.
On the brighter side, now that he sees that he could earn so much, he has reduced the cost to 10 bucks per person from Tuesday and he says he could have easily earned Rs 2 lakhs provided there were enough rains.
