Huge potential
Industry has a huge potential to flourish in Jammu and Kashmir. Recently J&K government has approved Rs 39 Cr mega project to boost commercial floriculture here/
In the past despite having a wide range of flowers, there has been no visible commercial floriculture activity here.
Despite this potential, the floriculture sector has not been able to make a significant contribution to the horticulture economy in the region so far. The main reasons for this are the small number of growers and enterprises, lack of aggregation platforms and weak post-harvest and branding efforts. And, to fill up these gaps the J&K government recently approved this ambitious project to boost commercial floriculture in the region.
The Indian floriculture industry has been shifting from traditional flowers to cut flowers for export purposes. India has a dynamic Rs 15,000 crore domestic floriculture sector which exported produce worth Rs. 771.41 crore in 2021-22. Moreover, commercial floriculture has higher potential per unit area than most of the field crops and is therefore a lucrative business.
One of the key focuses of the project is cluster-based area expansion of small ornamental nurseries, which will help to increase output and productivity. The project shall undertake protected cultivation of cut flowers, aromatic plants, loose flowers, and bulbous ornamental crops, as well as annual flower seed production. The project also included technology upgrades for existing ornamental nurseries, building aggregation platforms and post-harvest interventions like on-farm distillation units, seed processing units, walk-in cold storage, transport, branding and marketing efforts.
