Article Dr. Aswath Chenna Reddy Principal Scientist Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR)

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Dr. Aswath Chenna Reddy
Principal Scientist
Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR)


Hailing from a small village near Anekal on the outskirts of Bangalore, Dr.Aswath Chenna
Reddy, son of a farmer, went on to become a Principal Scientist and head, doing extensive
research in flower crops and biotechnology. He completed B.Sc & M.Sc (Horticulture) from UAS, Bengaluru and joined ICAR as scientist after passing ARS (Agricultural Research
Service) in 1989. After his Doctoral Thesis, he got selected as “Brain Pool Scientist” from
KOFST, South Korea and got his PDF in Biotechnology. Presently, he is heading the Division
of Floriculture & Medicinal Crops, ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru.

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Please tell us about floriculture and your research work and its importance.
On an all India basis floriculture is being carried out in 3 lakh hectares and this is growing
annually at 25%. Commercial floriculture has been around since the last 20 years and it has been providing a sustainable living especially for farmers living in peri-urban areas. Rose,
chrysanthemum, marigold, etc. were grown in small plots of land like 10 - 50 cents and sold as loose flowers in and around the cities.
Gradually, floriculture got extended into cut flower business. Off late, floriculture has grown as a commercial venture with big companies taking an interest in this industry. Owing to
globalisation in the 2000s, the floriculture industry began expanding. Many MNCs and other companies got involved in the floriculture business and began exporting flowers, especially rose, to the Netherlands.
In the last 5-7 years, this has come down as the entire industry of rose flowers has shifted to the African countries due to lower cost of labour & world bank support to develop 3 rd world countries. Interestingly, most of the big flower producers of India who were in the cut flower business shifted to Africa and today, in Africa, it is mostly Indians who are in the flower business.

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But slowly, this vacuum got filled by peri-urban farmers who started growing different flower crops in poly houses and started supplying them to the cities in the form of cut flowers, which is used in bouquets, wedding decorations, etc. This is a big trade in India now. Floriculture is best suited to small and marginal farmers where they can get good returns with lesser investment and more involvement

I worked extensively on improvement of flower crops especially gerbera, crossandra,
chrysanthemum, gladiolus and China Aster. I have released more than 10 varieties, which are on par with the commercial varieties imported from Netherlands. My varieties on crossandra have improved the lives of small and marginal farmers. My work on flower production in north Eastern India has brought smiles to tribals.

Is the agricultural department offering support to the floriculturists?
Yes, Central and state governments give subsidy through National Horticulture Mission,
National horticulture Board and also under many other schemes for commercial floriculture in a big way. APEDA also supports floriculture for export. NABARD, ICAR and state Agriculture Universities provide training on all aspects of floriculture. Various activities like poly house, shade net, water harvesting ponds, pack house, planting material, drip irrigation , cold storages etc., are subsidized under these schemes.

Do these trainings come at a cost?
The farmers are trained free of cost. However they pay nominally for food & stay. For the sake of convenience, the training programmes which were earlier spread over 10 days have been modified to a week beginning on Mondays and winding up on Saturdays.
Each training batch will have around 10-20 farmers, on request we may even conduct for small group also. They are trained both in theory & practise so that after training they are well equipped to start any new venture.

Earlier, most farmers took up projects without much crop knowledge, leading to low output, high cost, crop failure etc. For example, farmers from Karnataka sought loan for lily production - a crop that doesn't grow everywhere. Hence, these training programmes play a very important role in appraising the farmers of the entire package of practises for floriculture. Farmers thus trained will know what crop is suited for which place, what would be the chances of pests and diseases, the influence of weather, the requirement of water, fertilisers, insecticides at the right time, the stage of harvest, post harvest treatments, etc. In Floriculture, everything should be precise and unless the farmer is very thorough with precision farming, it is very difficult for them to sustain this line of business.

What measures can be taken to control insects, pests etc.?
The biggest problem in floriculture these days is pests and diseases. In a panic reaction farmers are indiscriminately spraying pesticides etc without proper guidance. Hence an integrated pest management system has been developed and imparted to the farmers.
Pest control in polyhouses is very important, there are some very good developments in
biological techniques to control pests. There are excellent neem based fungicide, pesticides and bio control agents for nemetodes etc. All these aspects are integrated into the training
programmes, so that they adopt an integrated pest management system. Farmers should ensure that insects do not enter the poly house. The entry and exit of poly houses should be highly protected. A very alarming trend that we scientists are worried about is that the farmers when in distress go to pesticide dealers, rather than approach ICAR/University for relief. About 90% bio pesticides that are being sold are not registered.

Aren't there any certification in place for these pesticides?
All Insecticides should be certified and registered by the Central Insecticide Board, Lucknow
after they have been thoroughly tested and passed by ICAR Institutes. But there are many
spurious pesticides sold over the counter which leads to crop failures and farmer distress.
The government has to take strict measures like raiding such shops to keep a check on such
insecticides and pesticides and should ensure that only authentic/certified pesticides and
insecticides are made available to farmers.

Why are farmers not getting competitive rates for their Produce?
Another major issue faced by the floriculture industry is the absence of organized marketing. The farmers are not aware of the rates in the other markets. They also do not have any warehousing or stocking place. So they are at the mercy of middle men and sell in distress at throw away prices. The government has to create proper marketing facilities like sheds, cold storage rooms, refrigerated vans in the districts where flowers are grown abundantly.
Also farmers should go in for value addition for their crops instead of selling them just off the field. It is a slow and slightly expensive process but farmers should make efforts towards this end, because then their incomes will multiply.

Do you think centres like Bangalore seem neglected especially when it comes to flower exports?

Export is unaffordable to small and marginal farmers. The flight charges are too high for them. Considering that Bangalore has a very conducive weather for flower production, packing storing and export, the Government should take pro active measures like collecting, storing, packing etc and subsidising flight charges by involving FPOs and other institutions.
Also since Bangalore is well connected to international destinations and flowers are being
grown in and around Bangalore the Government should come up with an integrated plan starting from ensuring good planting materials, good fertilizers, pesticides, warehousing, collection, grading and exporting. Our flowers have a very good demand mainly in the Netherlands followed by US, Germany and the Gulf countries.

Which are the flowers ideally suited for bulk production and processing for value addition
?

Tuberose and Jasmine are good for extraction of aromatic oil and concrete. The value addition fetches 5 times more than the sale of loose flowers, however for processing to be taken up, the production must be in bulk and concentrated over a particular area. Similarly Rose and marigold are in high demand for production of attar and lutein respectively. Lutein content from marigold is in great demand in the poultry and meat industry. FPOs (Farmers Producers Organizations) should undertake such value addition projects.
Is there any varieties exclusively developed for these purposes?
ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticulture Research developed many good varieties in these crops suitable for production of aromatic oils, lutene content, gulkand and other purposes.

What is your opinion about growing roses for other purposes?
The rose industry can be diverted from just being a market for cut and loose flowers. In addition they have to be grown for the preparation of Attar and Gulkhand.

Based on your research experience, so far, what are some ideas and thoughts you would
like to share?

Farmers require the best quality planting material. In India, the lack of planting material is one of the biggest problems. Farmers usually buy from nurseries who may not be sourcing and stocking the best plant material. For example, Gladiolus, Lily or Tuberose. Lily, in particular, is 100% imported from other countries. It is challenging for us to supply the right material to the farmers.
The next one, like I mentioned earlier, is the production technology. We are already well-versed with the production technology at our Institute. We can definitely impart trainings. But, the use of problem-causing pesticides is a space which requires government intervention. The third is the need for an organised market. It is very much required in every district where flower production is very high. For example, Madikeri is the best place for Anthurium.
Organised marketing calls for proper storage, transportation and marketing facilities.

Flowers require about 5-13 degrees C cold storage facilities. If the government does something about these things, we can be highly successful in this industry because the Indian varieties are in no way inferior to the flowers from Netherlands.
Another thing that goes wrong, is the unscientific packing methodology and this is another space which requires improvement Our farmers bundle these flowers in gunny bags and transport them.

Transportation facilities are also very bad. For instance, the Kankambara Crossandra which is
grown 100 kms away from Bangalore, is transported in gunny bags in a normal bus. This is a flower that dries away within 4-5 hours. Wherever flower yield is high, garlands can be made at the farm itself and then switched to some sort of cold storage before it is transported to various places or even exported to Singapore or similar places where we have a concentration of Indian population.

We should also come up with a lot more value added products for these crops, like essential oils, aromatic oils, lutein content, etc. Another area we can target is the dry flower industry. Dry flowers is one of the biggest industries for Indian export. The government should provide incentives to convert some of the flowers into dry flowers.

What is the best suitable flower crop for places like the Rayalaseema district where the temperature is very high?
Rayalaseema district is a rain-fed area and the temperature is very high. So, for crops like
marigold - you get a harvest within 2 and half months even in peak summer. Chrysanthemum is another crop which will thrive well. Crossandra is also highly suitable for places with high temperature and so is Tuberose.
I wouldn't recommend poly house cultivation in that area because the high temperatures at
Rayalseema may not work for poly house cultivation - it can lead to disastrous outcomes.

Are you satisfied with the way agriculture research has progressed in India and what are the improvements you would like to see in this space?
Agricultural research, as a whole, has definitely revolutionized food production. In horticulture, we are producing around 300 million tons of fruits, vegetables, spice and plantation crops. Coming to flower research, it has now taken good shape. The only thing is that farmers growing flowers are all small and marginal farmers unlike wheat, rice or plantation crops where they are grown extensively in huge areas . For sustainability they grow flowers in 10 cents, 15 cents etc. We have come up with excellent varieties of flowers and excellent production technologies. We are trying to bridge the gap when it comes to these research outcomes reaching farmers. We are now producing a lot of e-slides wherein we can impart training and research material to farmers and enable them to learn.
For example, many of farmers are unaware that they need to sterilize their poly house before taking up any crop cultivation. We are now sensitizing farmers about these things through WhatsApp groups, other social media, etc.

Research is definitely going in the right direction. However, we need some more government aids for the farmers to take floriculture to greater heights.

Currently, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), there are only 3-4 research institutes which are working extensively on flowers. We have come up with 100 new varieties as an outcome of this research. The National Horticulture Board has also identified our institute as one of the Institutes which can impart training on floriculture.
In case of peri-urban horticulture, floriculture is the best in terms of integrated farming. A farmer even with 30 cents to 1 acre can sustain with floriculture crops. He can definitely live a good life by growing flower crops.

A final piece of advice
Of late, plastic flowers worth up to Rs. 20,000 crores are imported from China. Slowly, it is
infiltrating the decoration industry. Apart from affecting the local fresh flower demand these plastic flowers are non degradable adding to the soil and water pollution. These plastic flowers are a massive danger for the floriculture industry.

We have been highlighting this in many places and many organizations also submitted a
memorandum to the government to ban their import and use. It is also our ardent request that people should stay away from plastic flowers and encourage fresh flowers.
 

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