Enterprising farmers looking for a shift from traditional crops for better income are beginning to take up floriculture in this desert area. This is the first time that several farmers have successfully grown gladioli flowers on a commercial basis.
Though gladiolus is basically a European plant, the demand for its flower sticks has been growing steadily in the country. Increase in demand in the neighbouring Delhi has provided impetus to young farmers to try and experiment.
Dalbir Singh of Kharar Alipur village on the outskirts of the town was the first to stake his savings on growing the plant. Goaded by experts of Haryana Agricultural University here, he made a cautious start by growing the plant in a small area of about 250 square yards. He has since increased the area to one acre. He claims he earns about Rs 2.5 lakh from the crop every year from this one acre plot.
He said he harvested around 70,000 sticks of flowers from an acre which sold for around Rs 3 lakh. After deducting the expenses, he saved about Rs 2.5 lakh. He said the gladiolus required minimal though frequent irrigation and no costly fertilisers and pesticides. The crop, however, required intensive care and a thorough knowledge of the irrigation pattern since the amount of water required was different at different stages.
Dalbir Singh regretted that the government had not yet set up a proper flower market in the state. He said such a market would not only benefit farmers, the government could also earn substantial revenue from the sales.
The agricultural university experts said there was great potential for growing flowers in the area because of its proximity to Delhi which was a big market. They said there was great scope for exports too and farmers in the Gurgaon area had successfully shifted to floriculture and were exporting flowers to several European countries and the USA.
