Grains of truth - A village of eternal bloom

KURUKSHETRA: Residents of a village in Kurukshetra district have been harvesting an eternal bloom, seeds of which were sown by their forefathers.
Floriculture is the mainstay of Bir Sujra residents, unlike most other villages of the district where conventional crops are grown around the year. Every household of Bir Sujra is engaged either in growing or selling flowers.While old settlers of Bir Sujra, who had migrated from Delhi almost 80 years ago, were engaged in growing flowers, the younger generation took it a step forward and established a mandi in the village for selling their produce to the traders and commission agents. This has taken care of their marketing worries. Flowers from the village are now being supplied to parts of Haryana, Punjab and even back to Delhi.
“When we migrated to Bir Sujra, we did not get fertile land. By the sheer dint of their hard work, our ancestors made the soil productive by adding manure and organic matter for years. Today, every household has good earning due to efforts put in by our elders,“ says Raj Kumar, a progressive farmer of the village. Kumar has been conducting regular workshops on floriculture at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar.
Flowers are grown over 150 acres in Bir Sujra that has 150 households and a population of about 1,500. Key crops are marigold, rose, gladiolus, and chrysanthemum.
The annual sale of flowers in the village mandi is between Rs 15 to 20 crore.
Not only have the farmers managed to break the conventional cycle of wheatpaddy, but also gained better returns. “If all remains normal, per acre income ranges between Rs 1 lakh and 1.50 lakh. Some of the farmers even earn up to Rs 2 lakh per acre. Even during lean period, the average income is around Rs 60,000-70,000 per acre,“ say farmer Shyam Singh.
However, the farmers of Bir Sujra are yet to set up net houses for growing flowers round the year and also save their produce from vagaries of weather, disease and pests. “For us growing flowers is a gamble. If everything remains okay, we make good money. But there are times when we suffer losses due to bad weather or disease affecting the flowers in full bloom. This may, however, change as we have started thinking about it,“ another farmer Roshan Lal adds.
The villagers don't rely on horticulture department or any government agency for support, Kumar says, adding that the state government was yet to wake up to needs of farmers growing unconventional crops.