India is proud of its achievements in agriculture. The rate of growth in foodgrains production has slowed down while the rate of growth in horticulture is on the rise. Of the horticulture, floriculture assumes greater importance. Knowledge based floriculture is economically quite attractive than agricultural crops like rice, wheat, maize, mustard and so on. Floriculture occupied an area of 154 thousand hectare (2007-2008) to produce 485 hundred thousand tonnes of flower and earned Rs.340 crores in exports during 2007-2008. Use of flowers in worship, beautification during festivals and marriage, seminars and symposium is well known. Cosmetics, perfumes, fragrance and oil are also produced from flowers. Floriculture is scale neutral and capable of providing employment at various levels namely villages, market place, urban and peri urban in towns and cities. Both open and poly house floriculture is becoming popular in the country. Seedling raising by tissue culture, flower seed production and cut-flowers are popular occupation amongst unemployed youth and old men and women alike. Plant nutrient use in floriculture is quite high. Interestingly use of organic sources of plants nutrients is relatively higher in flower cultivation. Use of micronutrients improves quality of flowers. Earlier flower lovers used to grow flower as a hobby. Now farmers, particularly the poor and marginal ones, are growing flower for commercial purposes. Floriculture has become an industry. In this paper, an attempt has been made to demonstrate the economic attractiveness of floriculture compared to foodgrains and other important field crops. It also suggests some future lines of work.
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