Commercial Cultivation of High Retuns on Orchid Flower Farming

1. Economic Assessment of Orchid Flower
Commercial Cultivation in Odisha
A Profitable Venture
By Srinivas. B
(Detailed Project Report for Orchid Farming)
1. INTRODUCTION
The floriculture has become an important sector all over world. In India,
floriculture has been associated with culture and heritage since very ancient time.
Apart from increasing the domestic demand in last few years export has also
increased significantly. Besides cut flower like roses, carnation, orchids and
chrysanthemum potted plants are popular in our country. Interesting aspect of
pot plants trade in India in the recent times has been exports. It has shown
enormous growth during the last 5-6 years. In the present Project it is proposed
to undertake cultivation cut flower plants like Dendrobium Orchids plants. These
plants exhibits a monopodal form of growth, whereby the main stem continues to
grow throughout the year and spray of flowers can develop form each leaf axil. In
Nature these pot plant can be grown throughout the entire tropical Asian region.
The plants are grown at day time temperature of 28-35° C. and night time
temperature of 20-24° C with a fairly high relative humidity. It is also prefers
shaded conditions.

2. 2. THE MARKET DEMAND AND USAGE
The target markets for cut flower in India are Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune,
Hyderabad, Delhi, and Chennai and cum other important cities of Kerala, Gujarat,
Rajasthan, and UP & MP. Cur flowers are mainly used in floral arrangements,
bouquets, worship and social occasions. Due to its excellent keeping quality, wide
range of forms, and colors Orchids finds ready acceptability among the florists.
Cut flowers are sold in great demand throughout the year for various occasions,
more especially during Christmas, New Year Day, Valentine’s Day, Teacher’s Day,
Mother’s Day and all important festivals.
SHADENET HOUSE TECHNOLOGY

3. Originally the term ‘Shade net house’ meant a house in which plants are grown
under Indian climatic conditions, the term shade net house includes a house
which made our of GI pipes shade net with UV stabilized rope or including a
simple net house for growing shade-loving or greenhouse plants.
IRRIGATION
Epiphytes needs to be sprayed with water and the media is to be just moist and
some of the orchids do well when allowed dry out in between irrigations whereas
terrestrials can tolerate wet media. Misting or fogging can be done at regular
intervals to maintain humidity.
HARVESTING
Harvesting should be done in general when most of the flowers on the spike have
opened fully with two or three buds, Flowers cut prior to maturity wilt. The stalk
is cut at the base close to the stem. This operation is generally done in the
evenings and stalks have to be pre-cooled in water before packaging and storage.

4. PACKING
The flowers are graded based on the stalk length number and the size of flowers.
Orchids are stored best in plastic films at 5 to 7 °C and they keep fresh for 10-14
days. The flowers are packed in specified numbers depending upon the kind in
florist boxes after keeping wet cotton at the cut ends and wrapping it with a
polythene wrapper. Generally 50-100 spikes are packed in carton provided with
sufficient number of holes.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
PLANT PRODUCTION
Dendrobium Plant: Dendrobium orchids are most often purple and white. As in all
orchids, the frequency of watering depends on your growing condition, but at
least weekly is a good idea during the summer. These plants are shipped in
quantity from Hawaii, Taiwan and throughout Asia. The plants all have at least
three or four canes, with four to eight leaves on each cane. The compactum
species comes in white, blue and pink and the hybrids come in white, pink,
purple, blue, red, yellow, green, brown and cream. Some Dendrobium species are
scented. In total there are more than a thousand Dendrobium species.
CULTIVARS
Among the commercially grown varieties in India are white, purple and other
colors.
CLIMATE
In natural climate pot plants can be grown throughout the entire tropical Asian
region. The plants are grown at day time temperatures of 15-40° C. and night time
temperature of 20-32° C with a fairly high relative humidity. It also prefers shaded
conditions.
SOIL
Modern technology does not recommend growing these pot plants in soil. It is
grown on pieces of coconut husk and charcoal, because the roots of plants
require much aeration.

5. WATER
The quality of water is also an important part of growing Dendrobium Orchids.
The Electrical conductivity (EC) of irrigation water should not be more than 1 mill
mhos/sq.cm. The Ph should be in the range of 5.5 to maximum 6.0. if it is higher
than this range then the PH of the irrigation water is reduced by using acid.
ESTIMATE FOR ORCHID CULTIVATION
Estimate for Orchid Cultivation under Poly House (2 Acres or 8000 Sq.Mtrs.)
Sl.
No
Items Unit Quantity Rate Estimated in INR
A STRUCTURE
1 Poly House (GI Pipe Tubular) Sq.m 8000 1750 14000000
2 Micro-irrigation System (Drip) Sq.m 8000 200 1600000
4 Water Tank 100000 Ltrs 1 500000 500000
5 Pack Room/ Store Room / Guard Room Sq Ft 1500 1200 1800000
6 Equipments, Instruments & CCTV Set 1 250000 250000
A Total Cost 18150000
B As Quality Planting Material & Primary Bed Preparation will be ONE time for several years
1 Planting Material (10 plants/m2 for Nos 84000 150 12600000
4000 sq.mt.. i.e. total 40000 Plants +
provision of 2000 Nos of plant for
mortality)
2 Benches in RCC pillar with
Sq.
m
6800 300 2040000
iron/plastic bed preparation
3 Bed preparation with pot & culture
Sq.
m
6800 250 1700000
media (Benches)
B Total Cost 16340000
Total Fixed Cost (A+B) 34490000
C Recurring Cost
1 Recurring Expenses (Manure, Pesticides,
Sq.
m
8000 100 800000
Electricity, Salaries, Maintenance etc)
Total Project Cost (Fixed + Recurring) 35290000

6. Funds Inflow Statement Conservative
Monthly Flower Spikes 30000
Avg. Cut Flower Spike Rate 30
Avg. Daily Cut Flowers 1000
Net Amount per Month 900000
Monthly Expenses 66667
Net Profit per Month 833333
1 yr( 6 Months ) 5000000
2 yr 10000000
3 yr 10000000
4 yr 10000000
5 yr 10000000
45000000
Repayment Schedule – Orchid Farming in 2 X 4000 Sq Meters Poly House Structure
Total financial Outlay 353
Our Investment 30
Required Financial Assistance 323
Rate of Interest 6%
Year B/L O/S at beginning of year Net Income Principal Interest Total Loan O/s at EOY
1 323 50 0 19 19 323
2 323 100 75 19 94 248
3 248 100 75 30 105 173
4 173 100 85 21 106 88
5 88 100 88 11 99 0
Repayment period 5 years with 1st Year Grace Period