J&K admin approves project to boost commercial floriculture

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has approved a major project to boost commercial floriculture and increase output to Rs 85 crore in the Union Territory, officials said.
Jammu and Kashmir has long been known for its rich and diverse agri-ecozones, making it an ideal location for the growth of a thriving floriculture industry, they added.
“The project for the promotion of commercial floriculture in Jammu and Kashmir, which is one among the 29 projects, was approved by the Jammu and Kashmir administration after being recommended by the apex committee for holistic development of agriculture and allied sectors of J&K,” Additional chief secretary (ACS), agricultural production department (APD), Atal Dulloo said.
The new project aims to address the challenges facing the floriculture industry in J&K through a number of interventions and strategies, the ACS said.
“The objectives of the project include increasing output from the pre-COVID levels of Rs 28 crore to around Rs 85 crore per year in the next four years,” he added.
Dulloo said it also aims in supporting each production cluster with an end-to-end value chain, post-harvest processing facilities, branding and market access, and capacity building of human resources for increasing employment in floriculture and allied sectors.
“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,” he noted.
He said that moreover, commercial floriculture has a 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” he added.
The project will undertake protected cultivation of cut flowers, aromatic plants, loose flowers, and bulbous ornamental crops, as well as annual flower seed production.
“The project also includes 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,” he added.
The project will restore a 2.25-hectare area under cut flower production apart from adding 24 ha of nursery area, creating four clusters (85 ha) for lavender cultivation, increasing the area under loose flower production and expanding the area under seed/bulb production, Dulloo said.
It also includes exposure visits and training for stakeholders and business development and contract farming agreements with breeders and seed companies.
The project’s key outputs include upgrading 54 nursery units to high-tech operations, re-operationalising 150 units, adding 400 ha of the area under cultivation (total 587 ha), creating 330 new enterprises, and training 2,000 new growers in aromatic flower and bulb and seed production.
“It also aims to produce over 27 crore ornamental nursery plants and 4,000 L of aromatic oils worth Rs 4.8 crore annually (from the 5th year) and undertake skilling of 4,000 growers in cluster mode. The total outlay of the project is Rs 39.03 crore,” he said.