Commercial production of orchids in north
Bengal is all set to become a reality with North Bengal University
growing 35,000 saplings in an artificially controlled environment.
Two years back,
the Centre for Agro-Business and Floriculture Management (COAFM) at the
varsity took on the meticulous task of rearing around 1,35,000 saplings
of four varieties of orchids — phalaenopsis, cattleya, dendrobium,
oncidium — through tissue culture.
Although known for its orchids, north Bengal’s contribution to the domestic flower market is hardly 20 per cent.
The prime reason is the lack of raw materials (orchid saplings) in abundance to produce flowers in bulk.
If one ventures
into mass production of orchids, the planting materials will have to be
bought from tissue production centres in Pune and Bangalore and also
from Holland and Australia, which increases the production cost
tremendously.
The NBU established the state’s first tissue production centre for orchids to counter this expense.
Now 35,000
saplings are ready for sale and have already found buyers. The first
consignment of 200 saplings of phalaenopsis has been bought by the
country’s first orchid gene bank at Senapati district in Manipur.
“The region is
known as the citadel of orchids owing to optimum conditions such as low
temperature and high humidity. But apart from growing orchids to adorn
our gardens or to exhibit in flower shows, we have not been able to
commercially supply them in the domestic flower market, let alone the
international market. In fact, the domestic flower market is satisfied
with orchid supplies from South-East Asian countries such as Thailand
and Malaysia,” said COAFM director Ranadhir Chakraborty.
Unavailability of
enough planting material has come in the way of mass production. At
present, growers propagate orchids through simple methods using cuttings
and bulbs. But it is not possible to grow the flower in large numbers
using these techniques.
“In tissue
culture, millions of plants are produced from a single mother plant or a
stock of plants. We have taken the initiative to bridge the gap in
supply of planting materials to growers and subsequently, increase the
delivery of fully-grown orchids in the domestic and international flower
markets. The first lot of 1,35,000 orchid plantlets has been
successfully produced in our laboratory, two years after we started the
procedure of rearing them. Around 35,000 of the lot are in the automated
green houses in fully hardened conditions,” said Chakraborty.
The Darjeeling
hills are home to over 300 species of orchids like cymbidium and
tropical orchids like phalaenopsis, cattleya, dendrobium and oncidium.
These are found widely in the foothills of Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and
Cooch Behar. The varieties of orchids grown in the region are known for
their exotic and classy looks and have great demand in the hospitality
sector like hotels and resorts, weddings and corporate events.
“The four
varieties of orchids we have grown cost between Rs 350 and Rs 1,000 for a
pot and Rs 100 to Rs 200 for a stem. From commercial point of view,
tissue production centres can produce plants in any quantity throughout
the year and the plants are free of virus and bacteria and less likely
to succumb to diseases. This production method is suitable for orchids,
as they are difficult to grow from seeds and cuttings in large
amounts. With tissue culture, plants can be designed to order, for
instance their height, colour and other features can be pre-determined.
As such the plants are small and lightweight, they can be freighted
easily and cheaply,” Chakraborty said.
Orchid growers admit to the constraints in the supply of planting material which hampers the steady production.
When Darjeeling
Garden’s Private Limited, one of the largest entrepreneurs of orchid
production in the region, undertook to grow 1 lakh cymbidiums in Mirik,
they had to purchase the planting material from a tissue production
centre in Holland and Australia.
“It is not
feasible to get huge supplies of plantlets in one go as long distance
haulage is a delicate process and the saplings tend to get damaged. We
had to get these from Holland and Australia in several batches which
raised the transportation cost. Because of such constraints, north
Bengal contributes only 20 per cent of the total supply in the domestic
market and less than 10 per cent in the international market,” said
Rajesh Chowdhury, director of Darjeeling Gardens.
In order to build a
steady market, there has to be a consistency in production, which is
far from reality in the region, entrepreneurs said.
“There has to be a
weekly production of at least 2,000 orchids to cater for the domestic
market and 10,000 orchids for the international market. The production
has to be consistent in order to build a market for orchids of north
Bengal. But the production in the region is very low and fluctuates
greatly which in turn hampers consistency of supply,” said Sunil
Agarwal, the head of operations and marketing at Darjeeling Gardens.
The Telegraph
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