Nirman Flower Farm: Success Via Diversification and Floriculture

I am Bharpur Singh from Village Kheri Mallan in District Patiala of Punjab. In my family there are total 10 members. I have two sons and both are married and are helping me in agricultural activities.

After completing my studies, I joined my father in farming and slowly developed keen interest in farming. I started with conventional farming cycle of wheat and paddy. However I soon realized that this is not that profitable and in 1999 I diversified and started with floriculture. I got the Guldaudi seeds for the first time when I visited Gurudwara Rara Sahib. I began by growing the flowers in small piece of land and when I found it to be really profitable I decided to increase the area under floriculture. I decided to involve my both sons in farming and both of them are full time farmers now. At present I am growing 4 types of flowers, namely Gladiolus, Marigold, Jafri and Guldaudi on 10 acres of land and at times I also take land on lease for growing flowers. I prepare the seeds of Jafri and Guldaudi flowers myself and import Gladiolus seeds from Holland and Marigold from Kolkata. The cost of Gladiolus farming costs 2 Lac rupees per acre and I earn almost 4 to 5 Lacs from their farming.

I market my products myself and mostly sell the flowers to Patiala, Nabha, Samana and Ludhiana Mandi. Over the years, Horticulture Department has organized several camps at our farms in which many progressive farmers have participated and training was imparted to those farmers who wanted to diversify their farming into floriculture.

My message to farmers is that they should seriously think about the benefits of diversification. The vicious circle of wheat and paddy farming has left farmers in a bad shape and under lots of debts. The fertility of the soil is decreasing and farmers are being forced to use more and more chemicals to increase production. Diversification is the only way by which farmers can achieve success and gain more profits and raise their standard of living.

In future I want to start growing roses in polyhouse. I want to grow tata roses and increase the scale of farming. I also want to diversify and go in for more varieties of flowers.