From cuppa to vase, Nilgiris 'wafts' with flowers

Coimbatore, June 25 (UNI) With tea cultivation not fetching remumerative prices, farmers are now shifting to floriculture in a big way in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to UNI here, Professor N Selvaraj of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) said with tea prices, especially the green variety, hitting the bottom at Rs three per kg farmers have started looking at floriculture for sustenance.

Carnation, Gerbera and Asiatic Delhi varieties enjoy a good market not only in India but also abroad, he said.

Reeling out the economics of floriculture, Dr Selvaraj said it will cost a farmer Rs 40 lakh per acre to shift cultivation to flowers from tea. He can expect to recover all his investments in 15 months and earn a profit of Rs 25 to Rs 30 lakh per acre.

Though the initial cost for the shift was high, more and more farmers were expected to join the growing band of floriculturists.

At present about 50 acre of land in the district were under floriculture and this was expected to grow as government increased its support to this activity.

Already some farmers had started exporting Carnation to Holland and Malaysia via Bangalore.

However, farmers cannot tap the huge potential of the growing market at present as at least 100 acre were necessary to fulfil the demand for Carnation from a single foreign company.

Carnation enjoyed a shelf life of eight days extending to 13 days if cultivated using organic farming which will not only be useful while transporting them across long distance but also ensure higher prices.

A Carnation fetched Re one in the domestic market whereas the same flower could get Rs five if exported. A 400-acre Carnation cultivation could fetch Rs 100 crore annually.

Considering the demand for organic flowers, the Horticulture Research Station of the TNAU had developed Integrated Bio-dynamic Organic Practices for Carnation for the benefit of the farmers.

Dr Selvaraj also emphasied on the need to provide cold storage facilities on cooperative basis to store cut flowers and increase the shelf-life.

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