Fulpur flowers go abroad

A farmer collecting Orchid flowers from his garden (left) and green plants are seen after plucking Garbara flowers for export a few days ago (right). PHOTO: STAR

In Bangla, ful means flower.

Using simple indigenous method, each farmer earned Tk 35,000 to 45,000 in a season (three to seven months) by producing exportable flowers, thereby fetching valuable foreign exchange for the country also.

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The tremendous success has been achieved in only one year.

But as in Western countries, they do not contribute to warming up the atmosphere by erecting 'green house' and using environment-damaging technology.

Guptargonj village is eight kilometres from Fulpur upazila headquarter in Mymensingh district.

It is a small village with about 70 farming families. Forty of them cultivate eight foreign varieties of flowers.

The village gives a different look. Big polythene sheds in the courtyards or on nearby high lands will draw anybody's attention. A shed is six to seven feet high, ten to twelve feet wide and 200 to 250 feet long. A farmer has eight to ten sheds.

Inside, there are numerous flower pants, grown in rows, some with flowers and some yet to bear flower.

They grow Rose, Orchid, Garbara, Gipsufila, Lily, Limuthium, Conetion and Filodrendron (leaf).

Flower cultivators Rafiqul Islam and Shahidullah Fraji said they earned Tk 42,000 and Tk 35,000 respectively in seven months.

Abul Hashem said he earns about Tk 6,000 per month by growing flower.

It takes three to seven months from plantation to harvest, depending on the variety.

They said they took to flower cultivation with the assistance of BRAC.

Lokman Hossen, Programme Officer for the flower project at the local BRAC office, told this correspondent that 40 farmers earned about Tk 17 lakh by selling flowers.

The project was launched in the village in November 2002. BRAC selected 40 families and gave them Tk 80 lakh loans. The project involved Tk one crore.

Local and foreign specialists including Mr Lords and Mr Bangbarg of Sweeden and Mr Mee Gai of Thailand are assisting the farmers, Lokman said.

When contacted over phone, BRAC agriculture expert Rafiqul Islam at its head office in Dhaka said Fulpur flowers are being exported to Britain, Italy and Thailand. The flowers will be exported to Middle East soon, he said.

Rakibul Bari Khan, Social Forestry Specialist (SFS) at BRAC head office in Dhaka, said they have decided to expand the project because of rising demand abroad.