Orchids are aesthetically pleasing flowers that are often used to decorate wedding venues in India. But, did you know that 80 percent of orchids sold in the country are imported from Thailand? Samir Baghat, a successful Telangana industrialist with a steel and iron manufacturing business, has decided to slowly change that by growing these flowers on his farm in Sangareddy district, Telangana.
Samir and his relative Praveen Gupta decided to venture into the agri-business because they wanted to try something new and were always fond of growing plants.
In 2015, they purchased eight acres of land in Sangareddy, which they named Mistwood Farms, and started to experiment with growing vegetables such as zucchini and fruits like pomegranate. However, the experiment failed because the soil was predominantly black and did not support the healthy growth of crops.
“In 2016, while thinking about what I could grow without soil, I came across a farmer in Raipur who was growing orchids and was reaping decent profits by selling the cut flowers in the local flower market. These plants are not grown in soil but in another medium made of cocopeat predominantly. So I decided to try my hand at orchids too and did research online about how I could grow them in Telangana,” says Samir, adding that he did 90 percent of his research on the internet and ordered tissue cultured saplings of the Dendrobium variety of orchids in various colours from Thailand.