SRINAGAR, July 31: Jammu and Kashmir state will ensure full benefit to its commercial floriculture from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Netherlands, minister for horticulture and floriculture said.
The MoU provides for the Dutch offering their technical expertise to farmers for the promotion of flower-growing for commercial production.
“The agreement between the two countries which has been signed recently envisages promotion of commercial floriculture in the State and Dutch authorities will extend necessary technical knowhow to develop new technologies for world renowned varieties of flowers,” Sham Lal Sharma said on Tuesday.
“Last year we produced bulk quantity of flowers and supplied to other States, besides fulfilling the domestic requirements. The farmers earned handsome income from this business and helped the State in improving its economy.”
Flower production in India is poised at around 3,700 crores and accounts for 0.65 per cent of the world’s floriculture business. A study titled ‘Indian Floriculture Industry: The Way Ahead’ released by Assocham said the business will grown to account for 0.89 per cent of global share by 2015.
Kashmir can highly benefit from a monopoly in tulip production as it is the only state in country where these flowers are grown.
The Minister directed the officers to undertake field visits at least thrice in a week to educate the farmers about the Government schemes and promotion of horticulture and floriculture activities. He directed for ensuring close coordination between the farmers so that benefits of various schemes percolated at the ground level.
The flower varieties which will be grown with help by the Dutch have a great demand in the global market, he said.
