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Saying it with flowers
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Ours is more than a land of marigolds, finds RANA SIDDIQUI
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India is the only country that has the climate to grow all kinds of flowers Jafar Naqvi
FLOWER POWER: (from right) Kausar, Jafar and M.B. Naqvi, founders of Floriculture Today magazine.
This Holi, many played with herbal colours instead of chemical dyes and saved their skin from damage. But how many realised the contribution of our floriculture industry in the production of these herbal colours? Take the flower gerbera, largely found in Sanghli and Kolhapur in central Maharashtra and a major source of all kinds of colours. Blue is made from the gladiola, reds from the rose and so on. Providing this and more information about flowers and the floriculture industry in India is the country's only floriculture magazine, Floriculture Today, published from New Delhi.
"India has the world's best flora and fauna. Despite that we do not have even one per cent of organised floriculture business," laments Jafar Naqvi, Director of the magazine, "though its value has increased from zero to Rs.250 crore in only 10 years. The lack of awareness among entrepreneurs has caused a huge loss to the floriculture industry in India." Reasons for lack of awareness, he says, include the highly disorganised and scattered floriculture units, floriculture ventures on wrong locations, import of wrong technologies and so on.
"India is the only country that has the climate to grow all kinds of flowers. For instance, Uttar Pradesh has the best climate for gladioli, Kashmir for tulips, Himachal Pradesh for carnations, Kerala for anthuriums, and so on. But countries across the globe do not know this. India suffers from a negative image, as it is conceived as a country growing only marigold flowers. We have inexpensive cut flowers of all kinds, while abroad they are very expensive," adds Jafar.
Completes a decade
The magazine, a family venture (youngest brother Kausar looks after marketing), completes a decade of existence this July. "There was no concept of greenhouses in India, no one knew about shade nets or the actual rates of the flowers, right technology and locations for growing flowers, finances and subsidies available. We did the ground work in India, Italy, Holland, Singapore which are considered the main flower hubs across the globe, and provided information to our readers," says M.B. Naqvi, Managing Director, Floriculture Today. Floriculture Today is organising the International Flora Expo 2005 in Bangalore from July 1 to 3. The event will include exhibitions, international conferences and networking opportunities for growers, dealers, packers and others.
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