To bloom lucratively
The
floriculture industry in India has made significant progress in recent
years. The future seems to be a promising one especially for ornamental
varieties, says BK Banerji, NBRI
India
is blessed with a diversity of agro-climatic conditions prevailing
in the different regions in the country. A wide range of climatic
and edaphic conditions in the Indian sub-continent ensures that it
is ideally suited to produce almost all the ornamental crops throughout
the year. Cut flowers and ornamental plants play an important role
in the floriculture industry. In many advanced countries, ornamentals
are the major exportable crops. In our country, ornamental commodities
will increase tremendously in the near future. Continuous efforts
are being made in ornamental crop research during the last five decades
which has generated an awareness in the recent advances made by the
universities and research institutes in this direction. Currently,
floriculture is recognised as a lucrative profession. During the Eighth
Five-year Plan, the Government of India has considered floriculture
as an extreme focus segment item. In this programme the government
allocated Rs1 crore for the development of floriculture. The demand
for flowers in the world market is growing at around 15 per cent each
year. The floriculture industry in India comprises the florist trade,
nursery plants, potted plants (including house plants), bulb and seed
production, micro propagation (tissue culture raised plant) material
and extraction of essential oils from flowers. The industry is worth
$200 million. Flowers like China aster, chrysanthemum, crossendra,
gladiolus, marigold, jasmine, rose and tuberose are used in religious
and social events. These traditional flowers are grown on large acreage
of land, on a commercial scale (out door) for loose flower production.
Modern cut flowers like rose, gladiolus, chrysanthemum, carnation
and orchids are basically used in floral arrangements. Area under
cultivation of ornamental plants in India is: Jasmine (6630 ha), rose
(5498 ha), chrysanthemum (3752 ha), marigold (1404 ha), tuberose (912
ha), gladiolus (289 ha), orchid (46ha), gerbera (36 ha) and carnation
(16 ha). Credit for this cultivation goes to the efforts of multidisciplinary
group of scientists from several state agricultural universities,
national institutes of
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