PANAJI
The local farmers with the support of Agriculture department are now growing marigold flowers on a larger scale.
"The area of marigold cultivation has increased from 4 hectares to 26 hectares this year. 281 farmers are involved in commercial cultivation of marigold", informed Nevil Alphonso, Director of Agriculture.
"Goa's demand is around 2,500 tonnes of marigold by crude survey. We anticipate production in Goa is around 500 tonnes," added Alphonso.
Though the domestic production is still less than the demand of the market still there is hope that next year goan farmers will produce sufficient quantity of marigold.
The marigold flowers which are in great demand especially during Dussehra festival has a huge market in Goa.
It was a normal trend that flowers from other states of Karnataka and Maharashtra (Belgaum, Kolhapur) were brought and sold along the highways.
"This year the Goan farmers have taken a big chunk of this trade and next year hopefully Goa will become self-sufficient in marigold production," he added.
As per information received from agriculture officers, the marigold cultivation requires less manpower. The raised saplings need to be transplanted and one or two triming and some soil conditioning gives good yield.
The government gives subsidy for purchase of hybrid seeds supplied by the agriculture department.
The marigold flowers give good returns also as one kg of flowers fetch you more than Rs100 to Rs150 at the wholesale rate.
The government has provided training to farmers for cultivation of marigold and gives a subsidy for production.
A farmer Nilesh Harmalkar said that he had made a profit of around Rs 60,000 from the production of marigold in his 2,500 square metre land. He said that around 12 farmers are into marigold cultivation from his area.
