Shoma Patnaik
Panaji
Following success with setting up a government nursery for marigold flowers in the state, the Agriculture Department has set its sights on a similar initiative for orchids and anthuriums – two flowers highly popular in bouquets as well as in decorations for weddings and events.
The Agriculture Department has proposed to grow orchids and anthuriums at the Government Agriculture Farm, Codar, state’s upcoming Centre of Excellence (CoE) for vegetables and flowers.
Through cultivation the department aims to become a self-sufficient platform for the two flowers with in-house nurseries.
“The initiative will help floriculture take off in the state and farmers to grow varieties other than marigold,” a senior official said.
He explained that orchids and anthuriums are among the flowers targeted for local cultivation in Codar, owing to the local conducive climate.
The state presently has a couple of orchid farmers. However, there are hardly any anthurium growers with virtually all the requirements of the flower coming in from Bengaluru.
The department plans to source planting material for commercial cultivation of orchids (Dendrobium Phalaenopsis) and anthurium, in high-tech fan and pad polyhouses for which it floated a tender recently.
The tender says the successful bidder must supply healthy, disease free, tissue culture hardened planting material of specified varieties of the two flowers with the required inputs, viz. the growing media of defined composition, the varieties need to be 99 per cent pure, and along with maintenance visits by a qualified horticulturist for monitoring plant health, nutrient management, pest and disease management, etc.
The CoE is being set up with the help of Israeli agro technology, and is being tailored to suit local conditions. The Agriculture Department distributed three lakh seedlings of marigold flowers grown at the farm this year to farmers to coincide with the upcoming festival season.
Seedlings are of vigorously growing marigold flowers of varieties that are in demand locally. Farmers have been supplied seedlings at highly subsidised rate of Rs 1 per plant. The first lot of the seedlings is expected to hit the market soon, according to the Agriculture
Department.
