KENDAPARA: Flowers are an expression of love. They show your care and respect for others and even look classy. Yes the citizens of Kendrapara have been saying it flowers on the New Year.
The tiny bazaar on the Gop Square on NH-5 wakes up to the bells of bicycles and vans, towing flowers. The open space beneath the branches of two old banyan trees starts to fill up with thousands of bright red roses, tube roses, marigolds and gladioli. Demand for flowers shot up on New Year eve and sustained till Monday when people visiting offices on the first working day of the year preferring to collect some flowers for their bosses and colleagues, said 40-year-old florist Mohammad Faeem of Tendakuda village. “It is one of the few occasions when we log higher sales”, said Satrughan Baral a florist of Gandakhia village.
Like Satrughan, at least 300 flower raisers of the coastal districts of Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur had stocked roses in red, pink and white besides yellow colours which were high in demand on New Year’s Day.
As the New Year provides the dealers with an opportunity to do brisk business, planning this is done much in advance, said Prakash Sahoo, another florist of Kendrapara. Cut flowers can last two weeks if properly cared for, he added.
When Ranjan Pradhan of Bahakandia started marigold plantation on the banks of river Karandia a couple of years ago, it did not attract enough attention with most of the villagers turning down the idea as a risk not worth taking.
The New Year has been bright for him with a huge demands for the flowers from different classes of people. The rising demand for flowers in the past few years has seen a growth in plantation of marigold and other flowers. Confident of reaping profits many farmers are raising sundry flowers. A stretch of land on the banks of river Karandia, which was being used as a dumping ground for a long time, is now used to cultivate marigold flowers on 10 hectares. This has gradually brought down the dependency on the flower traders of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh in five years back.