HAJO
Floriculture
as a sustainable livelihood

Ratna Bharali Talukdar

Thirty three years ago Gunadhar Malakar started his flower garden on a small plot of land in a backward village—Burha Chapori under Hajo circle of lower Assam’s Kamrup district to eke out a living by selling flower in Guwahati. He could never imagine that there would be many more in the village and also in the nearby villages to follow him to turn his initiative into a silent revolution of taking floriculture as a sustainable alternative livelihood.

Mr. Malakar had started this commercial venture with a zero capital and no formal training either in floriculture or business management. However, his business outlook mixed with farming knowledge rapidly took him up in the ladder of success and today Mr Malakar has become a role model for hundreds of other farmers, who have turned Hajo, 26 km off Guwahati, as one of the most happening place in Assam in floriculture.

Standing in the midst of his majestic flower garden of myriad marigolds with butterflies of vibrant colours dancing on them, this ideal farmer in his sixties looked contented when he delved into the past to recount the day when he decided shift from traditional rice cultivation to floriculture for a better livelihood. The tiny flower business he started in 1974 not only sustained for over three decades, it also proved to be commercially viable and fetched him the money he needed to ensure that his three brothers carry on with their education, and later to run his own family - with wife and two children. Mr Malakar was bereaved ten years back.

“We belonged to a poor farmer family and used to have traditional cultivation, which was insufficient to meet our requirements. Incidentally one day I visited the Sukleshwar temple in Guwahati and found some vendors selling garlands of flowers near the temple. It was then the idea of growing flowers with a commercial approach came to my mind,” he says. Mr Malakar used to take 100 garlands of marigold everyday to flower traders of Sukleshwar temple in Guwahati.

A completely self-motivated and practically no capital to invest, he however, could not dare to dream high. The only satisfaction was that he had a regular income.

“A regular earning gave me a lot of satisfaction and confidence. Initially I started on a small scale. We used to produce rice and flower simultaneously. The outcome was that we had rice at home for consumption and flower for source of alternative income for meeting other needs, “he says.

Gradually he started expanding area under flower cultivation, to meet the growing demand. Now he has a flower garden of three-bighas (7.5 Bighas constitute one hectare) of land. For him another overwhelming moment of joy came when his eldest son Sanatan, after completing his study, preferred to go on with his father’s business than to search for an office job. His son’s decision has encouraged him to opt for growing diversified flowers, including planting a variety of local flower and Tulsi tree, apart from growing marigold.

Hajo being a major destination for religious tourists to a number of Hindu temples there is a local market of flowers. Since it attracts large number devotees, a section of local people have started selling garlands of Tulsi leaves, marigold and others for the purpose. Most of the households near the temple have at least one small garden, having Tulsi and other local variety of flowers.

The core market is, however, is in Guwahati, which is growing steadily and rapidly. Malakar brings around 100 garlands everyday on an average to Guwahati, 28 kilometers away from his place, for sale. Freshness and fragrances of his flower often fetched him a rewarding sum. During festivals and marriage seasons demand for flower goes up. At present, price of such a garland varies from one rupee to five rupees, depending on the market demand. During lean periods price may go even higher, he says.

His success has drawn at least 32 such growers in his village to adopt floriculture—shifting from traditional rice cultivation. Now, on an average two truck-loads of marigold flowers comes from greater Hajo area to Guwahati. Besides, it has generated indirect employment for many such families who make the flower garlands. They are paid Rs.20/ for making 100 such garlands.

The entire chain of economic activities - right from purchasing quality seeds from the market to finally carry flowers to the market with freshness, is however, quite a challenging one. It involves money, time and good effort. Mr Malakar, for instance, purchases 1000 numbers of quality seeds at the cost of Rs.1,600/. Tilling, spraying pesticides, manure, labour charges and watering involves a cost of about Rs.5,000/ per bigha. Then, there is a gestation period of three months since planting of the seedlings to the period of blossom. There are two cultivation seasons for marigolds – between September and January; and between June and August. Between January and June, practically there is no flower season. This has made growers like Malakar, to go for multi-cropping of flowers.

What is the outcome? Malakar says one can earn more than Rs. 25,000/ from one bigha cultivation of marigold in one season that is spread over three months, provided everything goes alright. However, there are risks involved. For example, marigold cultivation in a large patches of land in river bank areas, where Mr Malakar invested Rs.25,000/ this season, have totally been destroyed due to high flood situation and the entire money was wasted.

The experiences of the farmers including Malakar have actually unfolded multi-dimension of challenges and possibilities of adopting floriculture as a sustainable livelihood. Due to lack of exposure of the farmers and proper intervention programme initiated by any agencies to make them aware of modern techniques for improved cultivation, the vast possibilities of introducing multi-cropping of flowers including that of export oriented cut- flowers and rich varieties of local orchids, which have high market value in the international market—still remained untouched. There are also possibilities of adopting related activities including commercial butterfly cultivation, and bee-keeping engaging local people in such works.

Farmers are simply ignorant of official formalities in case of seeking any institutional help for finance in times of distress. An insurance cover of his flower garden may be of immense help in case natural calamities like high flood. Mr Malakar and most of the flower cultivators of Hajo, however, are not aware of crop insurance scheme.

Although there is no middleman involved between the flower cultivators and the flower traders of Guwahati, in absence of any association or cooperative among the cultivators they are not in a position to negotiate the price and it is always the traders who decide the price depending on the market demand. Networking of these farmers may help them gain more bargaining capacity.

Despite the challenges a steady and growing market in the capital city has encouraged many more farmers of Hajo to shift to floriculture. The cultivation has provided the farmers a lot of satisfaction and confidence and a large number of educated youths have already opted floriculture as a livelihood. These farmers have displayed their entrepreneurial skill and zeal. What they need is some institutional support to get a strong footing.