PROSPECTS OF FLORICULTURE IN INDIA:A REVIEW ANALYSIS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ARID AND SEMI ARID REGIONS

– Over the years, horticulture has emerged as one of the potential agricultural enterprise in accelerating the growth of economy. Its role in the country’s nutritional security, poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes is becoming increasingly important. It offers not only a wide range of options to the farmers for crop diversification, but also provides ample scope for sustaining large number of Agro-industries which generate huge employment opportunities. In terms of increasing farmers’ income, diversification towards flower cultivation results in higher profit per unit area than most of the field crops and therefore can enhance the livelihood of farmers. Despite of the major constraints in flower production in India it can still be developed on a commercial scale even in adverse climatic conditions such as arid and semi arid regions. This gives plenty of opportunity to farmers to expand beyond the conventional venture of farming.