Regional Correspondent, Rajshahi
By cultivating flowers commercially, many young men of Rajshahi district are getting self-reliant because unlike other crops, both demand and price of flowers continue to rise. By cultivating other crops such as paddy, wheat, sugarcane, lentil and mustard, farmers worry whether they would get a fair price.
Often they incur losses due to low retail prices; but flower cultivation is increasing steadily with its increased demands and prices.
Even, the attack of pests in flower is negligible. It requires less fertiliser, less irrigation and less pesticide for growing flowers. As a result, the cultivation of flower is increasing day by day in Paba, Godagari, Mohanpur, Puthia and Tanore upazilas of the district.
Following the examples of other flower cultivators, Jafar Iqbal, son of Isahaque Ali from Harisar village under Paba upazila has become a successful entrepreneur by cultivating flowers on his land.
Talking to Bangladesh Post, Jafar said he earlier used to cultivate paddy on his land. However, after incurring loss in paddy cultivation for several years, he opted to flower farming for last couples of years.
He has been cultivating flowers on 10-Kathas of land with the help of local agriculture officer. Rezaul Haque, Sub-Assistant of Kadipur block cooperated him in preparing the flower garden.
With the profit from flower selling, Jafar gradually extended cultivation by taking a lease of more land and now he is cultivating flowers on more than 10 bighas of land.
He cultivates tube rose (rajanigandha), rose, marigold, chapa, hajari marigold, basanti marigold, gladiolus and chrysanthemum. He also plants some other varieties of flowers including star, dahlia, cosmos and bagan bilas. His wife, Nusrat Jahan, assists him to cultivate, pluck and sell the flowers.
Observing that flower cultivation is a profitable profession, she said, “After covering all costs, we earn Tk 1.3 to Tk 1.5 lakh profit annually by selling the flowers. Jafar Iqbal said, “There is no other profitable cultivation than cultivation of flowers. The demand for the flower is increasing day by day.”
“There are one or another kind of programmes all around the year throughout the country. As a result, demand for flower remains the same all the time. Especially, on national days, Valentine’s Day, International Language Day as well as on different religious holidays like Eid and Puja, demand of flowers increase so much that we cannot make adequate supply,” he added.
“The price of flowers also increased two to three-fold during those special occasions.” Jafar further said that by plucking 10,000 to 14,000 Marigold flower from a bigha of land, he can earn Tk 30,000 to 40,000. He said, “The price of per piece of flower is Tk 3-4 which periodically increases during special occasions. Per piece of rose is sold at Tk 5-7 while per stick of tuberose (rajanigandha) is Tk 4-7.”
Jafar is proud that every day, many high ranking officials, teachers talk to him, asking for variety and price of flowers and purchasing flowers from him. He said many people of the village and surrounding villages were also adopting flower farming by following his examples.
Sharmin Sultana, Paba upazila agriculture officer said there is a huge demand of flowers in Rajshahi. She said being lured by assurance of satisfactory price and less involvement of risk; many farmers of the upazila now prefer to cultivate flowers as an alternative to other crops.
Shamsul Haque, deputy director of Department of Agriculture in Rajshahi said due to adverse impact of climate change, farmers of the region often incur loss by cultivating paddy and wheat. “As a result, farmers are inclined to cultivating alternative crops and plants. In this context, there is a bright prospect of flower cultivation which is also profitable,” he added.
He further said flowers are cultivated on 20 hectares of land in the district.
