Agriculture
CSIR Floriculture Mission
- 06 Mar 2021
- 4 min read
Why in News
Recently, CSIR Floriculture Mission has been approved for implementation in 21 States and Union Territories of India.
- CSIR’s Societal Portal has also been launched along with the Android App.
Key Points
- About the MIssion:
- Floriculture is a branch of horticulture that deals with the cultivation, processing and marketing of ornamental plants vis-à-vis landscaping of small or large areas, and maintenance of gardens so that the surroundings may appear aesthetically pleasant.
- The mission will focus on commercial floral crops, seasonal/annual crops, wild ornaments and cultivation of flower crops for honey bee rearing.
- Some of the popular crops include Gladiolus, Canna, Carnation, Chrysanthemum, Gerbera, Lilium, Marigold, Rose, Tuberose etc.
- In the mission, available knowledge base in Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Institutes will be utilized and leveraged to help Indian farmers and industry.
- The Indian floriculture market was worth Rs. 15,700 crore in 2018. The market is projected to reach Rs. 47,200 crore by 2024 during 2019-24.
- Along with CSIR, other implementing agencies involved are:
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),
- Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC),
- APEDA and TRIFED,
- Fragrance and Flavour Development Centre (FFDC), Kannauj, and
- Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
- Significance of the Mission:
- Raising Income: Floriculture has the potential to provide employment to a large number of people through nursery raising, floriculture farming, entrepreneurship development for nursery trade, value addition and export.
- Agro Climatic diversity: India has diverse agro-climatic and edaphic conditions (physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil), and rich plant diversity, still it shares only 0.6% of the global floriculture market.
- Import Substitution: At least 1200 million USD worth of floriculture products are being imported by India every year from different countries.
- The convergence of Floriculture with Apiculture (beekeeping) as envisaged in the mission will yield even greater benefits.
- Other Related Initiative (Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture):
- Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root & tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa and bamboo.
- About CSIR’s Societal Portal:
- This Portal has been developed by CSIR Team with the help of MyGov Team.
- The Portal is to facilitate the public to submit the societal problems that can be resolved using S&T interventions.
- This is the first step in terms of seeking inputs on challenges and problems being faced by different stakeholders in society.
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
- It was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body. It comes under the Ministry of Science & Technology.
- It is known for its cutting edge research and development knowledge base in diverse science and technology areas.
- It has been ranked first in the Nature Ranking Index-2020.
- The Nature Index provides close to a real-time proxy of high-quality research output and collaboration at the institutional, national and regional level.
