Intl flora expo in city

The Indian floriculture arena is hotting up as Bangalore plans to host the country's first international flora expo. The indentification of floriculture as an income-generating activity by small farmers has laid the foundation for an economically-viable diversification option in agri-business which should eventually lead to an export capability.

The international floriculture market is worth $8 billion and India accounts for only 0.6 per cent of it, amounting to Rs 250 crore. Most of the Indian exports are roses.

The national area under flower cultivation has doubled from 53,000 hectares in 1993-94 to 1.03 lakh hectares in 2001-02. A large part of the resulting floriculture business is concentrated in centres like Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. The industry has now stabilised with about 70 units in Bangalore and Pune exporting on a sustained basis.

Recognising the importance of this sector, the central government, as part of its programme to improve the output of horticulture products (floriculture comes under that overall rubric), has announced the National Horticulture Mission. It aims to enhance horticultural production to 300 million tonnes by 2011-12 and also to bring an additional 40 lakh hectares of land under horticulture.

The total budget requirement for the mission during the 10th Plan is estimated to be Rs 5,974 crore and the proposed outlay for the mission for the 11th Plan is Rs 15,725 crore.

One problem faced by flower exporters is a lack of cold storage facility at airports.

"The Agriculture and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) plans to increase cold storage capacity and extend the facility to all the ports in the country," said K S Money, chairman, APEDA. APEDA has so far set up a cold storage facility worth Rs 18.5 crore at Mumbai.

High freight charges is another problem faced by the floriculture industry faces. This inhibits exports, leading to low utilisation of installed infrastructure and breaks in continuity.

To link smaller farmers with exporters, APEDA plans set up agri-export zones. It also plans to set up three wholesale marke-cum-auction centres at Bangalore, Mumbai and Noida. The centre at Bangalore will be ready within three months. To ensure quality, APEDA has introduced harvest and post harvest protocols and also plans to train exporters on quality requirements.

J N Chamber, managing director, National Horticulture Board said the board will lay more stress on pre-processing and marketing. In order to encourage horticulture farmers, the NHB has decentralised the project clearing system upto Rs 10 lakh.

Under the national Horticulture Mission, stress will be laid on encouraging technology transmission and training small and marginal farmers in the latest technologies.