A sector with the potential to bloom

The government has recognised floriculture as an export-oriented sunrise industry though the bulk of its output is consumed in the domestic market due to steadily swelling local demand

The commercial farming of flowers, technically called floriculture, which began in India in the early 1990s thanks to liberalisation of the seed policy in 1988, has developed into a distinct and relatively lucrative branch of agriculture under its horticulture sector. Its growth has been truly remarkable in the past two decades. While the area under floral crops has expanded 4.4 times since 2001, their production has risen 5.6 times. The government has recognised it as an export-oriented sunrise industry though the bulk of its output is consumed in the domestic market due to steadily swelling local demand. The growing trend of gifting flowers on occasions like weddings, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, Teachers Day, Mothers’ Day, Christmas, New Year, and others is aiding demand growth. With an annual output of around 2.86 million tonnes, India is now the world’s second-largest grower of flowers, next to China, leaving behind traditional floriculture bigwigs like the Netherlands, other European countries, and the US.

However, the export of floriculture products is yet to gather momentum though Indian flowers are now landing in as many as 130 countries. India’s share in the global floriculture trade is quite meagre, just around 0.4 per cent, despite some geographical and climatic advantages the country enjoys in meeting the peak season demand of major importers. At present, India’s floricultural exports are hovering between Rs 450 crore and Rs 600 crore a year. The latest official data shows that India exported floricultural goods worth around Rs 571 crore in 2018-19, up 12.6 per cent from the previous year’s Rs 507 crore. In 2019-20, floriculture products worth around Rs 445.48 crore were shipped till December 2019. The US has been the largest importer of Indian flowers in the past three years. It is followed by Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and Italy.

Curiously, Indian floriculture is still dominated, as in the past, by the cultivation of loose flowers in open fields, largely by small and marginal farmers, in clusters around major religious places where such flowers are in demand round the year. These flowers, including largely marigold, jasmine, rose, chrysanthemum, gaillardia, crossandra, and a few others, account for over 98 per cent of production and constitute the mainstay of the floriculture sector. Marketed generally in bulk, these loose flowers are used mostly for making garlands, decoration in social ceremonies, and offerings at religious places. Many of them also have industrial uses like extracting oils and preparing traditional products like “gulkand”, and in various pharmaceutical and cosmetic formulations.

It was, indeed, the entry of the corporate sector in this field in the post-economic liberalisation era that transformed floral farming into hi-tech floriculture to produce export-quality cut flowers (flowers or buds with small portion of stem) in a controlled environment in greenhouses. These companies concentrated primarily on growing flowers in demand in the global market, such as rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, gerbera, lilium, gladiolus, China aster, and similar others. The cut flowers are used mostly in bouquets, flower arrangements, vase decoration, and carrying in buttonholes. Various types of orchids and anthuriums, many of which are natives of the country’s north-eastern hilly states, are also gaining a firm foothold in the world market. According to K V Prasad, head of the Pune-based Directorate of Floriculture Research, most of these export-oriented flower production units began their operations with technologies imported from countries like the Netherlands, France, and Israel. But they have now shifted, to a great extent, to indigenous technologies evolved by various research institutions of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and state agricultural universities. A further development of this segment of floriculture is being backed largely by locally generated technologies. The government, too, has been playing a proactive role in its development by lending the needed policy support. The role of entrepreneurs and farmers has been no less important, he maintains.

However, since the floriculture acreage, estimated at around 313,000 hectares in 2018-19, constitutes less than 0.8 per cent of the cultivated land, the scope for further expansion is indeed vast. A sustained uptrend in domestic and export demand for floriculture products is likely to serve as a significant growth driver and facilitate spreading floral farming to new areas.

Nevertheless, there are some formidable constraints and challenges as well, which need to be addressed to allow floriculture to grow to its full potential. Lack of market intelligence in terms of global demand, supply, and price trend projections is one of them. Besides, growing competition from China and neighbouring debutants in this field, such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, is posing a big challenge for Indian floral product exporters. Like India, these countries enjoy the climatic advantage of being able to grow and supply cold-weather flowers to major importers when their local crops tend to succumb to severe winter. India would, therefore, have to be technologically ahead of its competitors. This is where the country’s floriculture research network can prove its worth.

surinder.sud@gmail.com