STATUS OF FLORICULTURE SECTOR IN NEPAL

Abstract

Flowers are adorable creations of the god useful for all occasions from birth to death of human life. Thus, the tendency of people to accept flower on all occasion make it a great potential sector to contribute largely to the national GDP. The floriculture business is increasing 6-9% yearly over the last 20 years. About 20% cut flower, 60% ornamental plants, 90% seeds, and 20% as a whole floral product demands is fulfilled by imports with 12-15% increasing demand annually. Among them, only 14 % of farmers are contacted in extension and 31% received training regarding production, marketing promotion and linkage, entrepreneurship development, and leadership development. 80% share of floriculture export is occupied by propagation material, especially to India, and importing live plants and cut flowers majorly from India i.e., 38.40%. This is due to weak accessibility of information on technology and technical experts, low price export and high price import, weak export marketing management, promotion, and country singularized export. Policy for investment guarantee, import substitution, and export promotion; infrastructure development for wholesale markets, cold storage, refrigerated van, and collection center; package program for irrigation, greenhouse, transport, packaging, manpower development, and seeds; research and development for local spices, manpower development, production location, diseases, and pests, marking network, etc. are the essential need of floriculture sector development in Nepal.