Monday, November 29, 1999

Engineer turns floriculturist, grows Dutch roses

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Patel becomes the first farmer to grow these in Ahmedabad where temperature remains high throughout the yearAfter graduating in electrical engineering, Mahendra Patel never worked as an engineer. Instead he took to agriculture on his 18 acres in Kasindra village, about 50 kilometres away.But then wheat and rice cultivation did not yield much profit, and he shifted to floriculture — growing Dutch roses, about three years ago.But growing roses has been a profitable venture for him. In the last financial year, he sold a total of 10 lakh rose sticks, each worth Rs 3, and generated a profit of Rs 22 lakh after incurring expenditure on inputs, labour and marketing. He said he sold all his roses at Ahmedabad's Jamalpur flower market.Patel told The Indian Express about his switchover to floriculture. He said he checked websites on floriculture and found there was a huge demand for rose in India and abroad. Besides, there was scope for huge profit as well.Patel said he travelled to Bangalore, Kolhapur and Satara to study floriculture. He found several farmers engaged in the cultivation of Dutch roses, especially in Kolhapur. Dutch roses are larger in size and brighter than the ones grown locally, and fetch better prices."I was really impressed by a farmer in Kolhapur who initially began cultivation on 10 acres and is now growing Dutch roses on 108 acres. He is now exporting to Germany and Japan," said Patel.As the climate in his village was unsuitable for rose cultivation, Patel set up a greenhouse by using latest technology for maintaining a temperature of 38 degrees —necessary for the flowers to grow and bloom properly.As rose flowers require non-brackish water, he also set up a big reverse osmosis plant for irrigating the plants.State horticulture department officials said Dutch roses are generally grown in Surat, Navsari and Valsad districts — where the temperature is comparatively favourable.But Patel has become the first farmer to grow Dutch roses in Ahmedabad where the temperature remains high throughout the year, they said.Roses are grown in over 3,500 of the total 11,000 hectares in Gujarat and only 70-80 hectares were utilised for the cultivation of Dutch rose. There are a total of 200 greenhouses in the state.State Horticulture Director S R Chaudhary said horticulture activities including floriculture are getting a boost in the state with subsidies being extended under the National Horticulture Mission. A sum of Rs 75 crore has been set aside in the state for promoting horticulture this financial year.

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