Saturday, August 27 2005 15:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: With the global boom in floriculture trade, hi-tech floriculture, especially cut flower segment, has been identified by the Government as a thrust area for exports.

Favourable climatic conditions, in addition to suitable geographical location, availability of cheap labour gives added advantage to Indian floriculture sector, Dr T Janakiram, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR), here told PTI.

A number of enterpreneurs have entered the area to cash in on the growing demand for cut flowers, he said.

At present, about 150 hectares of land is under hi-tech floriculture, mainly devoted to growing roses. An investment of Rs 500 crore to Rs 600 crore has been made in hi-tech floriculture in the last seven years, he said.

Rose varieties like Arjun, Raktagandha, Raktima, grown at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, hold promise for green house cut flower production. However, the know-how is completely from countries like the Netherlands, Israel and France, he said.

Netherlands is the major grower and exporter of roses, followed by Israel, Columbia, Kenya and Costa Rica. Export of roses from India started two years back and the volume is increasing year after year, he said.

The main products for exports consist of cut flowers, dried flowers and planting material. Dried flowers account for nearly 70 per cent of the total Indian exports, while share of cut flowers is 17 per cent.

Despite considerable export of floricultural products from India, its share in world floriculture is a meagre 0.4 per cent, Janakiram pointed out.

However, recent developments in Indian floriculture industry have shown signs of playing a major role in world floriculture market, he said.

The growth rate of Indian floriculture over the past several years has been impressive at 563 per cent while its competitors like Equador and Zimbabwe have registered a growth of 463 per cent, Janakiram said.

The total area under floriculture in the country is about 88,600 hectares with about 250 hectares of land under protected cultivation. Production of loose flowers is about 5.09 metric tonne while cut flowers are 680.6 million numbers.

The export of floriculture products from India was to the tune of Rs 105.15 crore in value during 1999-2000 and Rs 190.63 crore in 2000-01, Janakiram said.

To give further impetus to floriculture exports, he suggested focus areas should include improvement of infrastructure like cold storage chains, marketing, packaging, creation of National Export Promotion Council for floriculture, development and enforcement of quality and above all adoption of cost-effective polyhouse technology.