Bloom time for floriculture farmers!

Parvathipuram: It is bloom time for floriculture farmers of Vizianagaram with religious rituals, festivities and marriages creating huge demand for varieties of flowers. Farmers are reaping good revenues by growing colorful flowers during the winter season. This is high demand season for flowers and the rates are double than that during normal days. Kartheeka Masam is the most auspicious period for Hindus and most of the people like to visit temples and perform special poojas during this month.

The investment for floriculture is also less compared to food crops like paddy and vegetables. In addition to this, the profit from flowers is higher than the any other crops. Because of such potential prospects, farmers have taken up floriculture during this season and even exporting them to Odisha, Chattishgarh, apart from Visakhapatnam.

Farmers of Kummarikunta,Ramabhadrapuram, Kondavelagada, L.Kota, Narayanapuram, Kallikota, Komarada, Garividi and some other villages are getting good yield of flowers. A variety of flowers including Crossandra (Kanakambaram), Marigold (Banthi), Chamomile (Chamanthi) are being grown across approximately a spread 1500 acres.

According to estimates, the flower growers are getting four-fold to five-fold returns from floriculture farming. For instance, while the investment for marigold is estimated to be Rs.20,000, the income is reported to be around Rs.80,000 to Rs.1,00,000. The cost of marigold at the marketplace is Rs.50-60 per kg during this season as the devotees of Ayyappa purchase them in high volume to perform special poojas. Women who perform poojas in large numbers at Shiva temples buy the flowers regularly.

Crossandra also has good demand and the consumers are purchasing them to decorate houses and function halls during celebratory occasions. The price of Crossandra is around Rs.150 to Rs.200 during this month while during other normal days it would be around Rs.100. K.Surapu Naidu of Kummarikunta village in Komarad Mandal informed The Hans India that he was growing marigold on two acres and sending them daily to Parvathipuram market. “I am earning around Rs.2000.

We can get the yield till January and we are happy with the yield and income through flowers.” He said. Ramabhadrapuram is the major center in this district from where large number of baskets are being sent daily to the markets in Rayagada, Koraput, Navarangpur, Jaypore in Odisha. The farmers from the adjacent mandals bring fresh colorful flowers during early hours and sell them to wholesale traders. The wholesalers market the flowers in other states and getting good margins.

According to deputy director of Horticulture, Lakshmi Narayana, this is the right season for the farmers to earn from floriculture. “The flowers have high demand in Karthikam as most of the people participate in Poojas and even marriages are performed in this season. We are supplying seeds on subsidy and providing other support services like advise to the farmers to uplift their financial standards.” he said.

By Koppara Gandhi