Indian farmer successfully shifts to gerbera cultivation
Shekhar Reddy has been cultivating cotton, paddy, red gram, maize and more on his 15 acres and more often than not had been incurring heavy losses due to unfavourable weather conditions. Learning about gerbera flower cultivation, he ventured into the new line, though it is very expensive and sort of adventurous. As an alternative crop, he chose gerbera flower cultivation.
He constructed a poly house in two acres at a cost of Rs one crore (150,000 USD) with 50 per cent subsidy borne by the Horticulture department. He dumped one thousand tractor loads of red earth mixed with manure in the poly house. He purchased 44,000 saplings in eight varieties each at a cost of Rs 38 ($ 0.56). He built a concrete tank with a capacity of 40,000 litres and arranged sprinklers to provide water to the saplings. Every day he sprinkles water for ten minutes.
Since it is not labour intensive, he started reaping the benefits after three months. There is great demand for gerbera flowers generally and during the season of marriages and functions, the demand goes up. Depending upon the demand, each flower is sold anywhere between Rs 3 ($ 0.04) and 10 ($ 0.15).
Read the full story at The Hans India