Chief Minister Floriculture Mission

Prevalence of suitable agro climate has led to natural occurrence of a large number of flowering species in Assam having aesthetic value and horticultural importance. Existence of an ornamental garden is a tradition and characteristic feature of every household in Assam. From time immemorial, the State has been endowed with a rich diversity of flowering annuals and perennials, bulbous ornamental, amazing creepers, ferns and foliage and awesome orchids. In orchid alone, Assam is credited with the natural occurrence of 191 splendid species having diversified forms and wide colour range. Contrary to the potential and scope of commercialization, the State floriculture even till today, is largely confined to household garden as a part of hobby horticulture. The number of commercial pockets can be counted on fingers. Although, the State floriculture sector has shown some amount of growth under the impact of government sponsored development projects like HMNEH, the net position of the State in the National Floriculture Map is yet to be visible. Today, Assam registers an area of 1800 ha under total floriculture which is less than 1% of the total area under floriculture in the country and 7.8% of the total area under floriculture in the neighboring West Bengal. It is further observed that even the neighboring states like West Bengal has a pride position in terms of area and production of flower crops eventually finding its way to the markets in Assam. Today, the incoming flower basket from West Bengal has virtually captured the State's flower market primarily due to low internal production and lack of consistency in supply as per desired volumes. According to unofficial estimates, the annual inflow of flowers to the State's flower market hovers around Rs. 7-8 crores paving out outflow of State's revenue in substantial quantum. It is now well accepted that in order to sustain agriculture as a profitable venture, due attention must be paid to selection of high value crop options that fetch higher return on investment per unit area. It has been an established fact that as a potential component of horticultural sector, the floriculture based enterprises can provide significantly higher net return to farmers compared to other agricultural production options due to their higher market prices resulting from uniqueness, diversified uses and fascination on part of higher income group.