Morung Express News
April 30
Kohima: India is home to about 1, 300 species of orchids, of which about 800 are found in the North Eastern region of the country because of the prevailing congenial climatic conditions, diverse terrain and altitudinal variation, which provide suitable habitat for orchids.
Prominently the region is rich in a large number of species of Orchids, lilies etc., however till recent past very little attention has been paid in using the wealth for their commercial exploitation, source said.
According to National Research Centre for Orchids, the north eastern states which are considered as orchid rich states, are best for commercial cultivation of different groups of orchids. Most of the present day cultivated hybrids are originated from the species native of this region, which have a very high demand in international cut flower and opted plant market.
Some of the commercially important species as cut flower, pot plant and indoor decoration and botanically important genera of this region include, Arundina, Ascocentrum, Calanthe, Catteleya, Coelogyne, Cymbidium, Cypripedium, Dendrobium, Eria, Paphiodedilum, Vanda, Pleione etc.
Some of the north eastern states of this region are not only rich in orchid flora in India, but in whole world. Few amongst several orchids of this region that is spectacular and superb in their beauty. The north eastern states has the highest concentration of monotypic orchid genera among which many of Indian orchid species are suitable either as cut flower or poted plant.
Source said that besides Costal plants of India, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and foothills of Sikkim are the places most suitable for the cultivation of tropical orchids.
“There is a high demand for cut flowers in the national and international market and this natural wealth can serve as a major source of revenue for many of the north eastern states,” source said.
Floriculture in the north east region is still infancy and yet to excel from the hobby growing to a commercial activity, source said adding though the region has a range of climate suitable for production of most of the commercially important flowers for most part of the year but food based agriculture getting priority led to little attention to this potential sector of agribusiness.
“Wide knowledge gap prevailed for effective commercialization of floricultural activity in the region as a whole. Though the states in the region are close proximity, there is hardly any technology sharing or transfer,” it said.
Each state practices it own ideas of floriculture development and failed to grow due to low priority in terms of resource allocation. Though the region is considered rich in biodiversity and other flowering species but commercial production is not pick up upto potential due to various constraints.
However, the region produces about 345.9 tonnes of flowers from an area of 902 ha which contribute 0.07 per cent in production and 1.02 per cent in areas. Assam accounts for major share. Only a few organized commercial floriculture units have entered in the region, source said.
There are bottlenecks in enhancing production and productivity such as traditional propagation technique, poor planting material, traditional production technologies, inadequate plant protection measures, inadequate post harvest management etc, source added.
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