FEBRUARY is an eventful month, with Pahela Falgun, Valentines’ Day, and International Mother Language Day lined up. Each occasion is unique, but flowers are an integral part of all three events. Flower farmers in Jashore’s Jhikargacha are gearing up for this busy season, expecting to sell flowers worth around Tk 70-80 crore this month. According to Bangladesh Flower Society, at least 8,000 people are involved in floriculture on around 3,500 hectares of land in Jashore. Data indicates that around four lakh people across the country are involved in this sector. Among them, around 30,000 are farmers. In Jashore, 10,000-12,000 farmers are involved with flower cultivation. The local market of flowers and cut foliage is estimated to be over 1300 crores. Almost USD 100 000 worth of flowers and cut foliage is exported every year. It’s estimated that flower production is over thirty times more profitable than crop production. At the very least we can look into the export of flowers to boost our forex earnings and stabilise our exchange rate, given that Bangladesh has a comparative advantage in flower production growth due to its temperate climate.
So flower producers should be given incentives to boost their flower production. At the present time a variety of factors hem production. They range from volatile demand, lack of storage, and inadequate market information. To boost flower farming, the government can incentivize the introduction of cold storages in areas with a high concentration of producers as the peak demand for flowers in Bangladesh tend to be in the winter season (November- February). This season hosts two important dates like Victory Day and Ekushey February. Also this season is the season of weddings, both of which heavily boost the demand for flowers. Each and every day flowers are also needed in hundreds of occasions -from political meeting to decorate the office.
So, proper storage of flowers under accurate freezing system is needed to save them from not decaying. But first of all – the farmers need government incentives to flourish their business.
