Masaurhi and Barh exude the fragrance of roses today, it could be Chiraura too tomorrow.

Seventy-five-year-old Dhaneshwar Prasad Singh of Chiraura, around 25km west of Patna, has decided to shift to commercial cultivation of Dutch roses after being in traditional foodgrain agriculture for over 50 years.

Dhaneshwar, who retired as a deputy director in the cooperative department 15 years ago, plans to grow roses in polyhouses, a technique that helps to control the temperature for growing certain plants in an enclosed area, over an acre.

According to the horticulture directorate, run by the agriculture department, Dhaneshwar would be the third farmer in Patna district to have adopted commercial cultivation of Dutch roses after two other farmers in Masaurhi and Barh.

“I received 90 per cent subsidy from the horticulture directorate for taking up the polyhouse farming method for this project. Of the project cost of Rs 34 lakh, I have received Rs 30,29,400 from the state government as subsidy,” said Dhaneshwar.

He said around 25,000 Dutch rose saplings would be planted in his fields within a week. “The first bloom is expected by next February and I hope to make good money around Valentine’s Day,” said Dhaneshwar.

The septuagenarian said he decided to take up Dutch rose cultivation because of the demand it commands in the market in Patna.

Nitesh Kumar Rai, deputy director (nursery development), horticulture directorate, said: “The daily consumption of Dutch roses in Patna is 1 lakh. Dutch roses come to the markets here from Calcutta, Delhi and Pune. While one stick of Dutch rose costs around Rs 2-Rs 3 in Delhi and Calcutta, its cost is higher in Patna owing to transportation cost and other factors. It sells for anything between Rs 10 and Rs 15 per stick. In the marriage season and on particular festivals such as Valentine’s Day, the sale of Dutch roses increases three-fold here. So it is very beneficial for farmers here to grow Dutch roses but they need to do it through polyhouse technique or shade net technique. The temperature needs to be maintained around 30ºC to grow Dutch roses and for this, they need to use poly-house or shade net technology.”

Rai said if Dutch roses are grown locally, they would be fresher and obviously, it would attract more buyers than the ones coming from other states.

Dilip Maharaj, Patna branch manager of Bangalore-based Agriplast, which masters in the art of building polyhouses for farmers, has made the polyhouse for Dhaneshwar too. “So far, around 17,000sqm of land is being used for polyhouse farming at Chiraura. People have started to realise the potential of polyhouse technique,” added Maharaj.