The New Nation - Internet Edition

SEVERAL thousand rural people in Bangladesh are now living on flower cultivation which has proved to be a profitable business. The beautiful flower-bedecked fields lying on both sides of the road catch the eyes of the passersby if anyone goes to Benapole by road. The fields cultivating flowers are located in the villages under Jhikargachha Upazila in Jessore district set an excellent example of diversity in our traditional cultivation pattern or system. Gadkhali, a village, has turned into a hub of different varieties of flowers as businessmen coming from faraway places buy flowers rather at a nominal costs from this market on any day.

Flowers available in the city markets are now usually supplied from the Jessore villages that are engaged in flower cultivation. A farmer ventured to cultivate flower commercially in his locality way back in 1982. He had started initially with the cultivation of rose on a plot of 33 decimal of land in his village. Flowers are now cultivated on 850 hectares of land in 60 villages of 11 unions under five upazilas in Jessore district. Some 3,500 farmers are involved in flower cultivation in which about 10 lakh people are employed. The BNP-led government had set up a processing plant for preserving flowers at Gadkhali.

Besides the known varieties, farmers are introducing foreign flowers for cultivation as they have successfully cultivated 'Jarbera', a variety that came from Holland a year ago. Being encouraged, this year (2009), the farmers have introduced another new variety of flower named 'Lilium', also coming from Holland, with the expectation of doing a good business, as one of its sticks may cost between Tk 100 and 150. Gadkhali-based farmers have already started adopting tissue culture to produce flowers.