Floriculture for Value Addition in Indian Agriculture Dr. V.

Basil Hans

After green revolution in 1966 some farmers came to adopt agriculture on a commercial basis. With rapid expansion of BT and the trends of globalisation, commercial proposition in Indian agriculture has become stronger as is evident in the evolution of agribusiness and agriprenuers. However, the sharp deceleration in agricultural growth despite an overall impressive growth of the Indian economy is a major cause of concern today. There are also clear evidences of worsening state of welfare of many a farmer. This does not auger well when agriculture is said to herald the country's second Green Revolution. Hence we need to look at new avenues like value-added agriculture. In this connection, commercial floriculture promises a wide array of opportunities to our farmers. With changing life styles and increased urban affluence and influence, floriculture has assumed a definite commercial status in recent times. City gardens are also common in India. Diverse agro-climatic conditions permit production of a wide range of temperate and tropical flowers, almost all through the year in the country. The commercial activity of production and marketing of floriculture products is also a source of gainful and quality employment to scores of people. Emphasis has been shifting from traditional flowers to cut flowers for export purposes. This form of diversified agriculture has immense potential for intra sectoral and inter-sectoral balance through value addition. Rose is the principal cut flower grown all over the country, even though in terms of total area, it may not be so. A larger percentage of the area in many states is used for growing scented rose, usually local varieties akin to the Gruss en Tepelitz, the old favourite to be sold as loose flowers. Gladiolus is the next most

Professor & Head, Dept. of Economics and Dean, Faculty of Arts, St Aloysius Evening College, Mangalore, Karnataka State, India.

important cut flower crop in the country. Tuberose, orchid etc are other flowers with high commercial value today. Floriculture is going to be a vital sub sector of Indian agriculture in future, given the wide and growing market for aesthetic and therapeutic items in recent. World trade in floriculture is estimated to be worth $500,000 million. Indias exports of floriculture products are less than $30 million. The total area under floriculture cultivation is about 88,600 hectares, with a production of 509,000 tonnes of loose flowers and 6806 lakh (numbers) of cut flowers. In terms of volume, India exports mainly roses-almost 100 percent. In present and future commercial floriculture markets, production opportunities exist if the goal to reliably produce high quality product in consistent quantities can be attained. To reliably produce high quality cut flowers in consistent quantities requires optimum production management. Production management strategies for implementation and training of personnel will be different for different types of production operations. Therefore, a key factor to realizing production opportunities is education. Marketing of cut flowers in India is loosely organised at present. In most metropolitan cities, with large market potential, flowers are brought to wholesale markets, which mostly operate in open yards. Transport-Communication-Market linkages should be established and managed efficiently. Besides, incentives should be given to those who grow cut flowers on scientific lines on a large scale to boost export. The Department of Agriculture and Co-operation, (Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India) runs an Integrated Development of Commercial Floriculture program. Auction houses have been set up in various cities. Strengthening of Model Floriculture Centres (MFC) is being done. India has a long floriculture history and flower growing is an age old enterprise. Its commercial value should be productively tapped. Rapid innovation

is a promising avenue for high-cost growers. This should be taken advantage of by the farmers from northern, southern, eastern and western parts of India.