| - By R.C. Upadhyaya Director, National Research Centre for Orchids (lCAR) Pakyong, East Sikkim - 737 106 |
| Work gives us a sense of identity and dignity of earning our living. Floriculture offers a vide range of opportunities to women in terms of employment, income generation, empowerment and above all self-fulfillment. Floriculture has emerged as an important agribusiness, providing employment opportunities and entrepreneurship in periurban and rural areas. Since a large number of women in rural areas where floriculture is practiced are already engaged in growing flowers, they have an opportunity to increase their incomes by taking to modernization in floriculture. During the last decade there has been a thrust on export of cut flowers, especially roses. The export surplus has found its way into the local market influencing people in cities to purchase and use flowers in their daily lives. |
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Traditional Floriculture
Floriculture in India is largely practiced by traditional flower growers. Originally flower growing was a caste-based practice. Over the years, it has been taken up by farmers from varying castes and backgrounds. Indian farmers grow flowers on part of their landholding along with coarse grains, millets, cereals, vegetables etc. In fact, floriculture forms a part of a farmer's agricultural activity. Flowers are grown on a small scale, using traditional methods of cultivation. By growing flowers, farmers ensure some cash income on daily basis, which is not possible by cultivating only cereals or coarse grains. Most farmers sell their flowers daily in the local market themselves or through middle man who collects their produce. The market prices fluctuate widely depending upon demand and supply. During festivals and marriage season demand peaks up. Nowadays farmers have learnt to manipulate the cultural practices. Besides cultivation, farmers have also mastered the skills for multiplication of plants. Thus for the entire production and trading there has been evolved a system for, floriculture. However, with the introduction of out flowers of different varieties, colours, shapes with enhanced vase-life, the attention of the clients has shifted to the new trends. The demand for exotic varieties of cut flowers grown under protected conditions is on the rise. The sudden arrival of cut flowers into market pose a challenge to the traditional flower growers. It requires different set of skills and resources for which farmers are yet not fine-tuned. While growing of traditional flowers in the open field had become a routine kind of activity wherein the entire family provide support in terms of labour in the field, which is contributed largely by the women in the family. The intercultural operations, irrigation, harvesting, purchasing of inputs and marketing are handled by young and old men in the family. Plant multiplication and decision on variety and colour are also taken by the menfolk either alone or jointly with senior women of the family. The increasing demand of cut flowers thus would require reorientation of farmers and his family members so that they too can avail the multitude of opportunities provided by the modern trends. The move up on value-addition chain manifests itself within food grains, cash crops and across crops from food grains to vegetables, from vegetables to fruits and from fruits to flowers. Farmers are tuned to market signals. Value-added advantage in floriculture is very high because flowers, especially for export markets are a highvalue commodity. The difference is not percentage incremental but a quantum jump in multiple digits, making floriculture as the fastest and most lucrative form of agriculture in India. Cultivation of flowers would enable disadvantaged communities to escape the spiral of poverty and unemployment.
Comparative advantages of India in floriculture
India has a definite advantage in floriculture. According to the famous "diamond of international competitiveness" propounded by Prof. Porter, India scores high on at least 2 of the 4 corners of the diamond described by him as under:
Factor conditions
The nation's position in terms of production factors such as skilled labour and infrastructure, which are necessary to compete in a given industry.
Demand conditions
The nature of domestic demand for the industry's product or service.
Related and supporting industries
The presence or absence of internationally competitive suppliers and related industries in the nation Firm strategy, structure and rivalry The conditions in the nation governing the creation, organization and management of companies and the nature of domestic rivalry Apart from these 4 basic determinants, Porter distinguished 2 additional factors.They are:
Chance
Events that have an influence on the competitive position of the industry, such as Socio-Economic Implications and Opportunities for Women in Floriculture important technological breakthroughs and discontinuities in input costs caused by oil price shocks, wars, and changes in exchange rates, etc.
Role of Government
The role of government has' an influence on the 4 determinants of the diamond and on the competitiveness of a sector. The 2 major points in which India has definite comparative advantages are the rich biodiversity and the availability of a large pool of skilled manpower at low wage. While the later is too well known to need any elaboration, the second factor relating to rich eco- system/biological diversity is described briefly in the following paragraphs.
India's ecosystem and richness
Situated at the tri-junction of Afro-tropical, Indo Malayan and Paleo Arctic realms with rich variety of characteristics derived from this assemblage, India is endowed with unique biodiversity. It is one of the 12 mega-biodiversity countries of the world and harbuors in excess of recorded 47,000 flowering and non flowering plant species (12% of recorded world's flora) and 81,000 animal species. With only 2.4 per cent of the world's land area, it holds 7-8 per cent of the global biodiversity on an overall basis.
Endemic species
Endemism of Indian biodiversity is significant. About 4,900 species of flowering plants or.33 per cent of the recorded flora are endemic to the country. These are distributed over 141 genera belonging to 47 families. These are concentrated in the floristically rich areas of North-Eastern India, the Western Ghats, North- Western Himalayas and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Western Ghats and the Eastern Himalayas are reported to have 1,600 and 3,500 endemic species of flowering plants respectively. These areas constitute 2 of the 18 hot spots identified in the world.
Certain areas of India have great potential for floriculture because of :
Sufficient winter and summer sunshine
high temperature 0 good soil quality
good water quality
different climatic zones for different type of products
low labour and investment costs
Given the intrinsically natural comparative advantages discussed above, India can be at the forefront of cut flowers and nursery industry in the world provided farmers/growers are facilitated access to advanced technologies, well-developed infrastructure and innovative environment.
Developing Capabilities to Meet Demand for Quality
The efficiency; of the long chain from production, packaging, transportation and delivery through wholesale to retail is required to be extremely high. In addition product innovation, is a continuous requirement. All this boils down to use of modern technology, which is possible only under, controlled environmental conditions in greenhouses, with controlled temperature and humidity. According to industry experts the main reason why Holland is so good at growing perfect quality is that growers specialize in one flower variety. They have automated their greenhouses and developed a system whereby growers take their products to auction daily. Flowers are sold, air lifted/shipped and delivered at retail shops worldwide the next day. By specializing in some lesser-known flower varieties and growing high quality products in large quantities, the Dutchs often produce a great diversity of flower products. In a way this has been good for floriculture industry because Americans see those unusual flowers, and they want to buy them. In India too, there is a need to develop the individuals capabilities so that our farmers too can get specialized and produce high-quality flowers. Under the FAO-funded national project on small-scale greenhouse technology for floricultural farmers it is hoped that the Indian farmers growing flowers would soon get specialized in producing high-quality cut flowers and join the global trade.
Government Programme and Policies
A number of steps have been taken by the Central and State Governments to encourage floriculture industry. The Agriculture and Processed Foods Export Development Agency (APEDA) also proposes to set up wholesale market-cum-auctioncentre for flowers in major cities - Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Initiatives have also been launched for the benefit of exporters by providing cold storage and cargo handling facility for perishable products at various international airports. Important schemes are:
Central scheme "Commercial Floriculture" Ministry of Agriculture
Scheme for Export Promotion and Market Development (APEDA)
Scheme for Packaging Development (APEDA)
Scheme for Assistance to Promote Quality and Quality Control (APEDA)
Scheme for Infrastructure Development (APEDA)
Scheme for Feasibility Studies Surveys Consultancy and Database Upgradation (APEDA)
Scheme for Generating Relevant -Research and Development (APEDA)
Scheme for Organization Bldg. and HRD (APEDA)
Department of Women and Child Development (HRD)
(a) Special thrust on empowerment and training for women
(b) Support to training and employment projects (STEP) If is also significant to note that floriculture export industry has been given the status of exportoriented unit. Custom duty on export of plant and nursery and other technological inputs required for floriculture has also been completely removed.
Employment Generation Potential in Floriculture
Floriculture is a labour-intensive activity, wage payment forming roughly one-third of the costs of production. Availability of skilled manpower, interalia, gives India major comparative advantages in the international trade in floriculture. Based on information for other developing countries, it is estimated that floriculture has a potential to generate direct employment for about 20 workers / ha. The indirect employment generation in the wide production chain covering plastic, paper, carton, \ lumber, agro-chemicals, transport and other services' is in a1:2 ratio. It indicates, that even a modest floriculture programme can generate millions of jobs, predominately for young women, quite apart from significantly, contributing to national income. A National Thrust Programme - "A Million Jobs for Women every Year' needs be formulated. One of the significant peculiarities of the floriculture industry's employment pattern is the significant inclusion 'of women because of their manual skills, abilities in terms of innate fine and developed aesthetic sense and delicacy as is evident from watch-making and fashion industry. The share of women workers is about 7E) percent in the total workforce in floriculture. By and large, women are engaged in cultivation, harvesting and post harvesting activities including packaging, while men perform activities linked to precultivation, maintenance of nurseries, irrigation and fumigation since these involve hard work and health and safety considerations. A preference for woman labour in production work is based on argument that floriculture is similar. to child care where women ensure the responsibility for the entire process of growth. Employers in' floriculture industry c0nsider it beneficial to engage women except their fear from pregnancies, which have to be paid for by them. However, to overcome this problem, they engage women either on contractual (daily wage) basis or use measures such as family planning advice. And younger workers are preferred.
Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Women
So far none or very little effort has been done on entrepreneurs ip eveopment among women farmers. Such developments require concerted efforts. These are useful in empowering women and enabling them to break the barriers that keep them from king advantages of commercial agriculture especially floriculture. There is a tremendous opportunity in floriculture trade at entrepreneurial level for women resides growing and selling cut flowers, women can, set up small enterprises where value-addition in the form of bouquets and flower arrangements on contractual basis can be taken up. Trade in dried flowers is also on the rise. The women can easily tap this opportunity.
Strategy for mainstreaming women in floriculture
Considering the potential of floriculture in generating higher levels of income, employment opportunities, greater involvement of women farmers and increase in exports, it has been identified as extreme focus area by the Government of India. And several development schemes have been I introduced. There is, however, a need to focus attention on women, so that the benefits of the schemes also reach them. If possible, it may be, made mandatory that at least 30 per cent of the beneficiary farmers be women.
Cost-effective greenhouse technology
The cost-effective greenhouse technology for small-scale farmers offers tremendous opportunities to women in general and farm women in particular. In the traditional floricultural families, women contribute immensely in growing flowers in the field. Women carry out all the farm operations - planting, weeding, irrigating, harvesting and packing of the flowers for market - except ploughing, pesticide, spraying and marketing in which men playa major role. Since women are already so closely associated with growing of flowers in the open fields, the greenhouse technology for floriculture comes as a boon for them.
It is a commonly heard complaint that whenever technologies ate developed for farm women to remove their drudgery, the tasks women perform, gets taken over by men on availability of the technology and women either get displaced or are pushed into other drudgery - ridden task. Fortunately in case of small-scale greenhouse technology this is not the case. The technology is gender neutral and suits and caters to the needs of farm women the most. Since all cultural operations are carried out inside the protected environments of a greenhouse, women while working on flower production activities inside the greenhouse are also protected from the vagaries of nature. To prevent any gender bias creeping into the system it is imperative to ensure that the technology along with all necessary knowledge and skill input requirements are passed on to women farmers along with their male counterparts. There is a need to improve the extension mechanism, which at present is weak and lacks floriculture orientation and gender sensitivity. Despite active involvement of women in all farm activities they are not targeted as clients to receive information and knowledge by the existing extension system. This needs to change if women are to avail the opportunities offered by growing floriculture trade. The small-scale greenhouse technology has an added advantage, especially for women as it can be practised on small land area of 500 M2. The importance of this fact is intensified as bulk of women headed households in our country own small-sized land holdings. Traditional farming on these small holdings are also economically unviable. While growing cut flowers under protected greenhouse on the small land holding is economically profitable and can alleviate women as also small and marginal farmers from poverty. An acre of land under traditional open field floriculture yields an income of Rs.10,000-20,000 annually, compared to greenhouse cultivation Rs. 45-50,000 annually from a mere 500 m2 of land.
The major problems women farmers face in practising greenhouse floriculture is in terms of high initial cost involved in setting up a greenhouse and purchasing of planting materials. While government offers 40 per cent subsidy for setting up the greenhouse, it still remains out of reach of several small and marginal farmers including women farmers who do not have adequate collateral to avail the credit facilities available through financial institutions. In Karnataka, higher subsidies and benefits are being offered to women farmers by the state Government, several farm families have registered part of the family land in women's name. This has made women feel more confident as also enabled them to avail credit facilities. This kind of policy initiative is likely to have an impact on women's empowerment and expansion of their participation in commercial floriculture.
Enabling women farmers
To enable women take advantages of the developments in floriculture, it is important to bring) in changes at various levels. They are at:
policy level (like provision of higher subsidy to women-owned farms)
field extension level
women farmers level
While at the policy level it is a good idea to encourage women farmers by offering a higher rate of subsidy especially where they are landowner. At the field level, to encourage women farmers take up greenhouse, more of women extension workers need to be engaged to transfer the information and knowledge to women farmers.
There is also a need to organize knowledge and skill training for women, either exclusively for them at the village level or along with their male family members at the Model Floriculture Centre (MFC) level, on following aspects:
Knowledge and identification of flower varieties suited for their region
Selection and handling of seeds, bulbs and other plant materials
Knowledge of common pests, their identification, symptoms and control measures
Post-harvest handling of flowers, value addition and marketing
Sensitivity to flower market trends
Simple accounting system
entrepreneurial skills in handling floriculture as an enterprise
The extension linkages in floriculture sector are extremely poor and totally absent for women floriculturists. With the establishment of Model Floriculture Centres (MFCS) by the Government of India, a beginning has been made. However, at the field level women extension workers are missing, as a result women floriculture farmers are completely ignored. Unless special efforts are made to focus attention on women floriculture farmers they would get left behind in upgrading their knowledge and skills so essential for them to avail entrepreneurial opportunity provided by the growing commercialization in this sector. Besides training in the nifty-gritty of modern floriculture practices, it is also essential to provide inputs to develop the entrepreneurial and organizational skills amongst women farmers. The education system at the village level would help greatly if it includes vocational course in floriculture especially for young girls. Inclusion of meaningful practical education would be of use in terms of economic benefits as well as social acceptance of girls attending school. It is generally observed that the marginal farmers, especially women, feel empowered when they come together under some organised forum/group. As members of a group they are in a better position to avail the facilities provided by the already existing infrastructure. To tap the opportunities provided by the floriculture sector it is suggested that women get organized into self-help groups comprising 15-20 members at village/ block level with the support of extension agency or some NGO working in the region. Such selfhelp groups of women farmers would then be in a better position to avail the benefits of subsidy and credit being offered to small- scale floriculture farmers. Strengthened by group feeling and training on technical knowhow along with entrepreneurial motivation women can take up floriculture as an independent enterprise and make profits. The fact that some peri-urban women have already taken up greenhouse cultivation with little or no knowledge of growing flowers previously, is a pointer to better opportunity for rural women floriculturist they take up the greenhouse cultivation of cut flowers. Thus floriculture offers opportunities to women as workers and supervisors in the industry, where a large number of women workforce is already engaged in big export- oriented greenhouses as well as tissue culture laboratories established for propagation and sale of exotic flower varieties. There is also a vast opportunity for them as entrepreneurs if they establish their own small-scale greenhouses. Besides, there are ample opportunities in dry flower trade, plant rental services and 'other value-added floricultural products.
Environment, safety and health issue
Flowers are emerging as a stable and very marketable international crop, earning up to 5 times / acre than fruit crops. To meet the high aesthetic standards of the market and to kill insects possibly harboued in the plants, growers use any means at their disposal including banned and unregistered pesticides (up to one-fifth of pesticide use); heavy loads of synthetic growth hormones and fertilizers, and an illiterate, underpaid minority workforce. There are important environmental, safety and health issues, which need to be carefully considered in planning for India's floriculture industry. They are: According to Gaston Dorren and Niala Maharaj, authors of "The Game of the Rose," floriculture consumes more pesticides than any other agricultural sector. Floral workers suffer the brunt of the trade's pesticide use. Twothirds of Colombian flower workers suffer from headaches, nausea, impaired vision, rashes and asthma, reports Pesticide Action Network, North America. A study published by the Netherlands' Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment reports that Dutch floral workers are exposed to pesticide concentrations of up to 60 times the amount considered safe. Dr Terril Nell, Professor of Floriculture at the University of Florida, argues that pesticide misuse is not as prevalent as some researchers suggest. "Growers have an incentive not to over apply pesticides" simply because they are so expensive. He does agree the industry could make more use of integrated pest management (natural insecticides, organic methods and biological controls to reduce pesticide use. Wiles, thinks the problem is more basic than that. "Rose growers have repeatedly failed to adopt even the most rudimentary advances in pesticide management practices," he says. In the Indian context since the industry is at nascent stage appropriate steps need to be taken to protect women' and other workers in the industry.
Work risks and illnesses
A study conducted by the occupational health, safety and industrial hygiene shows epidemiological conditions affecting workers of the various production process areas. Research was conducted directly with the workers of the companies. Most illnesses occur during cultivation. Keeping in view the potential of employment and entrepreneurship in commercial floriculture several development schemes have been initiated by the government. To further its advantages there is a need to make provisions for better marketing facilities with uninterrupted 'cool chain' particularly at airports so that flowers reach the destination in good marketable conditions with enhanced vase-life. While the growth and development in floriculture takes place efforts must also be directed to ensure no ill effects affect women workers in floriculture. Besides infrastructure up gradation, the small and marginal farmers, especially women need to be trained in all aspects of floriculture so that they can draw the benefits from the opportunities provided by agribusiness in flowers. To achieve this extension needs to be reoriented to cover floriculture and women extension workers be inducted for promotion of modern floriculture technology amongst farm women. Vocational training in greenhouse floriculture for school-going girls in rural areas would also enhance their abilities to avail the opportunities in commercial floriculture. |
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