Nursery owners are benefitting by cultivating and selling flower plants in Nilphamari. As winter progresses, the purchase of these plants increases. They are making profits by selling these at both the wholesale and retail markets.
While visiting a nursery on Saidpur Road of Sadar upazila, this correspondent found various plants of flowers such as chandramallika, red rose, white rose, dahlia, cosmos, sylvia, calendula, sunflower, gladiolas, and others.
Afizar Rahman, owner of the nursery, said 12 varieties of flower saplings were cultivated on one bigha of land this season.
Among those varieties, he expects to sell a range of marigolds including hybrid, red and queen super for Tk50-60 per piece, while hybrid dahlia would be sold for Tk15 per piece, chandramallika for Tk15, snowball for Tk20, calendula for Tk10, sylvia and cosmos for Tk10 apiece, among others.
On the other hand, Taj Mahal rose plants sell for Tk100 per piece, queen rose for Tk100 per piece, and Irani rose for Tk25-100 per piece.
The owner also said the seedlings for these plants were collected from Rangpur, Khulna, and Bogra's Mahasthangarh.
"Seedlings worth around Tk1.25 lakh were purchased this year," he added, "While many are sold between June and July, the bulk is sold in winter. I have sold plants worth Tk3 lakh so far, and plan to sell some more plants worth at least Tk1 lakh by February."
However, he alleged that there was a lack of support from the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) office, who failed to provide nursery owners like him with complementary seedlings and saplings.
"If the DAE had given us the seedlings for free, it would have benefitted us as we could have made higher profits" Afizar lamented.
Abul Kalam, a flower plant retailer, sells them on his van across Sadar upazila. He said his daily income rose to Tk300-400 when the winter season started.
Nilphamari DAE office said there were 116 nurseries across the district which produce flower plants, herbal plants, and other items.
The DAE office also acknowledged the fact that the nursery owners produce them at their own cost, without any technical support from the DAE.DAE Deputy Director Enamul Haque said his office provides logistical support such as pesticide training and other issues.
However, he pledged to increase support to the nursery owners as soon as possible.