• The Economic Survey 2024-25 has noted that floriculture has evolved into a key commercial venture within agriculture driven by a growing global demand for flowers

• India’s floriculture industry has grown into a high-performing sector, earning its status as a ‘sunrise industry’ with a 100 per cent export orientation.

What is floriculture?

• Floriculture is a branch of horticulture that deals with the cultivation, processing and marketing of ornamental plants.

• Floriculture includes annual (seasonal), biennial and perennial ornamentals, such as cacti and other succulents, bromeliads, trees, shrubs, climbers, bulbous plants, lawn and ornamental grasses, bamboos, orchids, palms, cycads, foliage, bedding, pot and house plants, cut and loose flowers, fillers, ferns, seed and bulb production of ornamentals, dried flowers or plant parts, and other value-added products, such as extraction of essential oils, edible pigments, and their marketing.

• The government of India has identified floriculture as a sunrise industry and accorded it 100 per cent export-oriented status. 

• Owing to the steady increase in demand for flowers, floriculture has become one of the important commercial trades in agriculture. 

• Floriculture has the potential to provide employment to a large number of people through nursery raising, floriculture farming, entrepreneurship development for nursery trade, value addition and export.

Major shift to export-focused flowers

• Commercial floriculture is particularly lucrative, offering higher returns per unit area than many traditional field crops. Profitable avenues in commercial floriculture include cut-flower production, loose-flower production, dry flowers, cut greens, pot plants, flower seeds, perfumes and essential oils. 

• Experts have noted that including flowers in rice-based crop sequences gave higher net returns than other sequences — rice soybean, rice-bell pepper, rice-fodder maize, rice-cowpea and rice-radish. 

• Further, intercropping flowers are more profitable compared to the options of cereals, pulses, vegetables and oilseeds. 

• With subsidy support and crop loan financing, it is a promising venture for marginal and small landholdings, which constitute more than 96 per cent of the total landholdings and 63 per cent of the area of cultivation under floriculture.

• The shift from cultivating traditional flowers to export-focused cut flowers highlights the industry’s transformation. 

• Entrepreneurs across states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have capitalised on this opportunity, establishing sophisticated export-oriented floriculture units. 

• The important floricultural crops in the international cut flower trade are rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, gargera, gladiolus, gypsophila, liatris, nerine, orchids, archilea, anthurium, tulip, and lilies. Floriculture crops like gerberas, carnations, etc are grown in greenhouses. The open field crops are chrysanthemum, roses, gaillardia, lily marigold, aster, tuberose, etc.

• In FY24, approximately 297,000 hectares were dedicated to floriculture, yielding an estimated 22,84,000 tonnes of loose flowers and 947,000 tonnes of cut flowers. 

• During the same period, India exported 19,678 metric tonnes of floriculture products, earning Rs 717.83 crore. 

• Key export destinations included the USA, Netherlands, UAE, UK, Canada, and Malaysia. With its high growth trajectory and promising export potential, India’s floriculture industry is blooming as a vital player in the global flower trade.

• Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is responsible for export promotion and development of floriculture in India.

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