Development of Floriculture

INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT Floriculture Nurseries: The Department of Horticulture has established seven Floriculture Nurseries in various Districts, viz., Navbahar and Chhrabra in Shimla District, Mahog Bag and Parwanoo in Solan District, Bajaura in Kullu District and Dharamshala and Bhatoon in Kangra District. Model Floriculture Centre: The Model Floriculture Centre has been established at Mahog Bag (Chail), District Solan and a Tissue Culture Laboratory is being set up for the propagation of planting material of commercially important floriculture crops. The present infrastructure at the Model Floriculture Centre consists of 1706.5 sq. m of Greenhouse area, one Handling Unit for post harvest handling of flowers and 3 Nos. of Cool Chambers for forcing and storage of planting material. The building, which shall house the Tissue Culture Laboratory, Training Hall and other infrastructure of the Centre, has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 94.22 lakhs and taken over by the Department of Horticulture in July 2004. Post-harvest Infrastructure: Collection, Grading & Packing House and cool chamber facilities have been established by the District Rural Development Agency for post-harvest management of floriculture produce in the districts of Bilaspur, Mandi and Kangra. Research & Development: The following organizations provide the necessary R&D support in the field of floriculture: 1. Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan. This University has a separate Department of Floriculture & Landscaping as its head quarters at Nauni. The location specific research work is being carried out at the regional Research stations of the university located in various Agro climatic Zones of the State. 2. Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology, Palampur, District Kangra. 3. ICAR Research Station at Katrain District Kullu H.P. 4. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Phagli, Shimla, H.P.

SCHEMES CENTRAL AND STATE FOR FLORICULTURE

Financial Incentives: 1.Horticulture Technology Mission a. Area Expansion: Financial assistance at the rate of 50% on production inputs is available to the individual growers for a unit of 0.2 Hectares with a ceiling of Rs. 13,000/-. b. Creation of water sources: Rs. 1 lakh for providing irrigation to 1 hectare area (water holding capacity of 3 lakh litres) subject to a maximum ceiling of Rs. 10 lakhs for providing irrigation to 10 hectare area.

c.

On farm water management: (i) Assistance for drip irrigation @ 50% of the cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs. 28,500/- per hectare. (ii) Assistance for sprinkler irrigation @ 50% of the cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs. 15,000/- per hectare for small, marginal, SC, ST and women farmers and @ 33% of cost subject to a maximum of Rs. 10,000/- for other category farmers. (i) Assistance for Plastic Mulching @ 50% of the cost of plastic film subject to a ceiling of Rs. 7,000/- per hectare. (ii) Greenhouses: A farmer can avail assistance @ 50% of cost for covering up to 1000 sq. m. (@Rs. 325/ sq. m. for hi tech and Rs. 125/ sq. m. for normal greenhouses. (iii) Low Tunnels: Assistance is provided @ 50% of the cost or Rs. 5 per sq. m., whichever is lower for a maximum area of 1 hectare. (iv) Shadenet Houses: Assistance is applicable only for the shade nets (without structure) @ Rs. 14 per sq.m or 50% of the cost, whichever is lower for a maximum area of 500 sq. m. per beneficiary.

d.Transfer of Technology: (i) Training of farmers within the State: Rs. 1500 per farmer for 7 days. (ii) Training of farmers outside the State: Rs. 2500 per farmer for 7 days. Technical Assistance: 1. Training in Floriculture: The Department of Horticulture organizes short duration training Programs for the training of farmers for floriculture. 2. Organization of Study Tours: Study Tours for flower growers from Himachal Pradesh are arranged to the developed flower growing areas in the country and flower markets to create awareness amongst them regarding the new trends/technologies in floriculture. 3. Advisory Service: Free technical advice is made available from the Department of Horticulture to the entrepreneurs and practicing floriculturists in pre and post-harvest technologies of floriculture crops. 4. Literature for Floriculture: Literature handouts containing technical information pertaining to cultivation of floriculture crops are supplied free of cost to the interested flower growers for their guidance. 5. Organization of Flower Shows: The Department of Horticulture provides assistance for the organization of flower shows to create awareness on the usage of floriculture produce both indoors and outdoors. 6. Formation of Flower Growers Co-operative Societies: The Department of Horticulture provides assistance to the flower growers for the formation of flower growers co-operative Societies to enable them to organize themselves on a co-operative basis. 7. Assistance from other Organizations: The Department of Horticulture helps the flower grower co-operatives and other organizations to obtain assistance for the establishment of post-harvest management facilities available from organizations like National Horticulture Board, APEDA and NABARD.

 SCENARIO The existing status of floriculture industry in Himachal Pradesh exhibits a scenario of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks (threats), in view of the changes that are rapidly taking place in the field of production technologies and marketing opportunities. Strengths: The most important strengths of the flower industry in Himachal Pradesh are as follows: 1. Comparative advantage of the production of almost all kinds of floriculture crops - Temperate to Sub Tropical, due to diverse agro-climatic conditions available in the State. 2. Comparative advantage in the production of floriculture crops for offseason marketing due to cooler climate. 3. Vast market for the flowers. 4. Fairly well developed institutional framework for the development of floriculture in the form of research, extension, credit, marketing, processing and communication infrastructure. 5. Nearness to the main distributing wholesale market at Delhi. Weaknesses: 1. Lack of irrigation facilities due to scarce availability of water resources. 2. Small, scattered land holdings and sparsely located population. 3. Wide spread natural vagaries like drought; hail storms; frost; etc. 4. Serious gaps in the application of advanced floriculture technologies for necessary floriculture production and improving quality and productivity. the

5. High pressure on land use for different purposes like cereal crop production, fodder production, etc., due to low per capita land availability. 6. Difficulty in technology dissemination due to difficult terrain, hostile climate, poor communication facilities and sparsely located population. 7. Lack of consuming markets within the State resulting in dependence upon distant markets of the country. 8. High post harvest losses due to: (a)Lack of modern post harvest management system. (b) (d) Very high temperature differentials in the producing areas and the consuming markets. High perishable nature of flowers resulting in high post harvest losses during transport. Distantly located production areas from the main roads. 9. High cost of marketing mainly due to high cost of transportation. 10. Lack of organized system of marketing through co-operatives and packing houses.

11. Lack of bargaining power with the individual growers due to small productive levels. 12. Inadequate availability of market intelligence to the farmers resulting in imbalances in distribution of produce in different markets. 13. Lack of media support to the floriculture industry for increasing the demand and consumption of floriculture products of Himachal origin in the consuming markets. 14. Lack of reliable database both in respect of production and marketing. 15. Concentration on domestic markets resulting in lack of quality consciousness amongst the growers. 16.Lack of scope for mechanization of the floriculture industry for timely execution of various operations and saving in labour costs. Opportunities: 1. Opportunities for the improvement of productivity and quality of flower crops already under cultivation by induction of standardized technologies. 2. Although domestic market continues to be the main plank of floriculture industry of H.P., yet opportunities do exist for exploring the market in the adjoining countries of Asian region and Middle East for the export of Himachal flowers in the future. 3. The general increase in the income levels and improvement in the standard of living of population in the country and increasing awareness about the use of floriculture has increased the demand for flowers. This flowers. 4. Opportunities exist for the value addition in the floriculture industry through adoption of improved post harvest management, packing and storage technologies for improving shelf life, reducing losses and increasing the marketing season/period in the year. trend is likely to for continue in the foreseeable future thereby expanding the market demands