Date:08/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/08/stories/2008080852850300.htm

Karnataka

Anthurium auction centre for Madikeri

Staff Correspondent

IN DEMAND: Senior Deputy Director of National Horticulture Board P.K. Singh (left) with other officials and growers at an anthurium plot in Kadagadal in Kodagu.

KADAGADAL (Kodagu): An anthurium flower auction centre will come up in Madikeri in the next five years for which Rs. 1.30 crore had been sanctioned by the Union Government under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, Deputy Director of Horticulture H.R. Naik said here on Thursday.

He was speaking to presspersons after a visit to an anthurium farm here.

Help

The proposed auction centre would help small anthurium growers immensely, especially in marketing flowers, Mr. Naik said.

The centre would have a tie-up with the International Flower Auction Centre in Bangalore for marketing flowers, which were in great demand, both in the domestic and international markets, he said.

Subsidies

Mr. Naik said subsidies could be availed of by anthurium growers under the National Horticulture Mission (NHM) as well.

Senior Deputy Director of the National Horticulture Board (NHB) and also in-charge of southern States, P.K. Singh, said that Karnataka was a leading anthurium growing State in the country after Maharashtra.

The Kodagu region had a high potential for anthurium cultivation in the State. A sum of Rs. 13.5 crore had been disbursed as subsidy to various growers in the State so far. The schemes contained in the NHB were demand-driven and growers irrespective of categories could approach the NHB for help, he said.Assistant Director in-charge of Karnataka, NHB, Dhal Singh, spoke. Anand, Assistant Director of Horticulture, Kodagu, was present.