Balbir Singh of Kot Khalsa area of Amritsar, after returning to Punjab after giving up his work permit from England, started cultivating flowers on his 13 acres of land. He was a waiter in England till 2014. He started cultivating as soon as he returned to Amritsar and is now earning Rs 8 lakh annually. Along with this, he has also provided employment to 7 families. When he started cultivating marigold flowers, his family made fun of him but he did not give up. Now the family is also supporting him. Earlier, these marigolds and marigold flowers were brought to Punjab from Kolkata. They were also not bigger than 8 grams and bringing them from there would also lose their freshness. At the same time, Balbir succeeded in growing 28 grams of marigold flowers, which has also received an award. He is now saying goodbye to paddy farming and earning double his income.
It is worth mentioning here that cultivating flowers is very profitable. Even the smallest farmers can adopt this business. It is said that this small business can be profitable. Because flowers are exported on a large scale. Floriculture, or flower cultivation, is the discipline of growing flowers and ornamental plants for gardens and orchards, and floristry, which includes the flower industry. The development of new varieties of flowers through plant breeding is the main occupation of floriculture.
Due to the joint efforts being made by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana etc., the trend of Punjab farmers is increasing towards the rainbow revolution i.e. ‘flower cultivation’. The flower trade has industrial status at the global level. The consumption of flowers is also very high in domestic markets, due to which a lot of possibilities have been created for flower farming. Since the climate of Punjab is very suitable for flower cultivation, other farmers of Punjab should also reduce some of the area under their cultivation and cultivate flowers.
Balbir Singh says that this is a very profitable business because by cultivating flowers, fresh flowers, dried flowers, flower seeds, flower bulbs, tissue culture or flower plants in pots can be prepared and sold. The perfume made from flowers is also sold at a very high price and gives a huge profit. The flower seeds produced in Punjab are being sent to countries like Holland, America, Japan etc. So, the farmer heroes should also pay close attention to the new emerging form of agriculture ‘flower cultivation’.
