Uluberia fast growing as rose producing centre

Kolkata: Uluberia is coming up fast as a centre for producing roses.

Eighty nine families are now involved in growing roses on 79 bighas of land under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Development Guarantee Act ( MGNREGA) scheme. The families that are involved in rose cultivation were given training on March 3. Around 2 lakh rose saplings will be planted. Rose saplings have been planted on February 14 and March 3. In 2017, 30 families had planted rose saplings on 26 bighas of land.

The areas where rose saplings have been planted are at Gadaipur which are under Hatgachia Ii Gram Panchayat.

Senior state government officials felt that the project will help the rose growers to become economically self dependent. The rose growers earn anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month by selling roses that are grown on

one bigha of land.

They will be able to earn anything between Rs 2 to 3 lakh from a bigha of land per annum if scientific method is followed in growing roses. The officials said more and more people are showing interest to grow flowers as they can earn money fast.

Senior officials of Howrah including Chaitali Chakraborty, district magistrate, Kartic Chandra Roy, Block Development Officer ( BDO) and Koyeli Das, nodal officer were present at the sapling plantation ceremony on March 3.

There are four flower producing zones in Bengal. They are Darjeeling- Kalimpong - Kurseong zone where winter lower, cactus, orchard and winter Lilly are grown. In Nadia Merry gold, Tube Roses and Gerbera are grown.

In Bagnan- Kolaghat zone roses are grown while in Amtala in south 24-Parganas cactus and different varieties of flowers are grown.

There are four flower markets in Bengal which are situated in Siliguri, Ranaghat, Deulti and Mullickghat in Kolkata.

After coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister stressed on the growing of flowers for economic stability.