HP looks to Sikkim orchids to revive wilting floriculture sector

State’s horticulture team in north-eastern state for training to implement commercial cultivation of orchids

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh government has drawn up a new plan to revive the floriculture sector, including introducing orchid cultivation.

Under the World Bank-funded Horticulture Development Project, the state government will provide help to farmers and orchardists for orchid flower cultivation. It hopes more production on less land will add to the income to growers.

A team of horticulture officers are at the Central Orchid Research Centre in Sikkim, which has a similar climate to Himachal Pradesh, to study ways to introduce commercial cultivation of orchids. The team will receive training on marketing orchids, too.

An orchid plant fetches ₹250 to ₹300 and can be grown commercially in nets or shed houses.

Kushal Singh Mehta, a floriculture expert, intensive flower cultivation will help farmers. After the team is back, it will organise awareness camps at the block level to make farmers and fruit growers aware of orchid cultivation.

Among those undergoing training in Sikkim are nodal officer Desh Raj Sharma, subject specialist, horticulture, Ranjan Sharma, Shamsher Singh Deru, Sudarshana Negi, Anjana Justa, Surindra Rana, Hitendra Patial, Raj Negi, Kushal Singh Mehta, Pradeep Himral, Amit Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Rajesh Parihar, Bhupendra Singh, Ajay Raghuvanshi, Ritu Sharma, Bhishma Singh, Manmohan Mehta, and Rakesh Kumar.

“We are trying to revive floriculture, our officers are making more field visits now,” says Vinay Sharma, a horticulture extension officer.

Lavender cultivation to be promoted

Apart from orchids, the government intends to promote lavender cultivation in Chamba district’s Churah and Pangi that border Jammu and Kashmir and have similar climatic conditions, under its Aroma Mission.

Lavender cultivation has gained popularity in J&K due to high returns and low input cost and maintenance.

Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has asked the chief secretary to take up the matter with the Centre to expedite the process for starting the lavender cultivation project.

Flower cultivation around Shimla had been gaining ground for the past decade, but farmers are now preferring crops to break even the losses suffered over the past two years. Chrysanthemum, carnation, gladiolus, rose, gerbera, and lilies are grown in villages close to the town’s airport at Jubbarhatti.

Two years of the Covid pandemic and the subsequent restrictions induced by it have hit flower cultivation in Himachal Pradesh with the area under floriculture seeing a decline of 47% in five years.

Flowers were grown on 710 hectares in 2015-16, but the area was reduced to 373 hectares in 2021. Before the pandemic, flowers grew on 705.77 hectares in 2018-19.

Cut-flower growers across six districts of Sirmaur, Chamba, Mandi, Kangra, Solan and Shimla have suffered heavy losses due to the pandemic and have now begun to diversify to vegetable growing.

Why flowers lost their appeal

“Flower cultivation is no more a profitable venture,” says Ram Gopal Thakur, a cut-flower grower and president of the Flower and Vegetable Growers’ Cooperative Society. Ram Gopal, who’s been into flower cultivation for the last six years, has now shifted to growing bell peppers. “I used to grow flowers, particularly lilies, on 3,000 square metres but this year, I am growing them on 1,000 square metres. On the remaining land, I have cultivated bell peppers,” he added. A stick of lily is sold between ₹30 and ₹60 in the wholesale market, while the price ranges from ₹100 to ₹200 in the retail market.

Forgotten floral revolution

Churah Valley Vegetable and Agriculturists’ Cooperative Society was started with 20 farmers in 1995-96, bringing a floral revolution. Nearly 400 farmers grew flowers. But the number of florists is gradually dwindling. “We have lost ₹25 lakh in flower growing in the two years. I used to grow flowers on five bighas, which have now been reduced to one bigha. Transportation and low demand have hit the business hard,” says OP Sharma, a retired customs official and progressive farmer.

With limited transport facilities, farmers transported their produce in Himachal Road Transport Corporation buses to Delhi’s Ghazipur market.