Prem Jose Vazhacharickal

Uday Kumar M.S

Floriculture is emerging as an important commercial crop sector in India from the point of view of both domestic and foreign markets. Demand for floricultural products is steadily increasing both in the domestic as well as export markets. The industry is gaining prominence from three broad counts: creating more employment, ensuring higher incomes to rural people and earning more foreign exchange. India is the second largest producer of flowers after China. According to National Horticulture Board (NHB), area under floriculture at all India level had increased from 53,000 hectares in 1993-94 to 2,48,000 hectares in 2015-16. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the area was 7.66 per cent, while the CAGR of production of loose and cut flowers were 9.44 per cent and 23.10 per cent, respectively. The proportion of the area under high-tech floriculture to the total floriculture area is 70 per cent in Netherlands and 90 per cent in Colombia, whereas in India it is hardly 500 hectares accounting for just 0.56 per cent of the total area under floriculture, while the rest is under traditional flowers. In India, nearly 77 per cent of area under floricultural crops is concentrated in eight states viz., Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi. India has a scope to bridge the gap between demand and supply, as global demand of floricultural products is growing at a faster rate. India is enriched with diverse agro-climatic conditions such as, fertile land, suitable climate, abundant water supply, low labour cost, availability of skilled manpower etc. which are quite beneficial for growing a variety of flower plants throughout the year. Floricultural crops are highly labour intensive and in a country like India floriculture as an industry has tremendous potential for generation of gainful employment in rural as well as urban areas.

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