Berhampur: Floriculture is thriving in the district as the state government has backed the business by providing better marketing facilities.

Dutch roses, orchids, barbara, jasmine, tube rose and marigold flowers are being grown here extensively to cater to the needs of the consumers. "Thanks to the government for improving the marketing facilities," said Ardhi Sreedhar Varma, general secretary of the Ganjam District Flower Growers' Association.

In October 2012, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had inaugurated a modern flower market-cum-training centre at Ambapua. The centre was established at a cost of Rs 2.35 crore. The objective of coming up with the centre was to promote floriculture in Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Kandhamal, Boudh and Nayagarh. It was the first flower centre in the state and third in India after Bangalore and Mumbai.

About 500 florists in Ganjam are commercially cultivating flowers, and the yearly turn over is Rs 1 crore. As the government has provided more facilities for marketing, the turnover might double in the near future, Varma said.

The demand of flowers has increased three times in the past few years, and the number of farmers has also risen from 50 to 500, he said.

Earlier, the centre had been equipped with flower receiving dock, flower grading area, rest shed for farmers and office room. In 2013, Phailin had damaged the building of the centre, but it was subsequently repaired.

"We had lost all hopes. However, the business improved after the construction of two cold storages in the centre last year. The provision of a refrigeration van at Ambapua flower market this month to transport flower produced by the local farmers to Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and other places has boosted the morale of the florists," said Varma. The road is now clear for e-auctioning and online trading of flowers, he added. Earlier, the farmers used to bring flowers to the centre in boxes with their own arrangement, which had resulted 30 to 40 per cent damage. But now, we have decided to establish eight collection points in Ganjam district with 15 to 20 farmers in each centre to co-ordinate the process. The farmers can deliver flowers in the nearest collection points. The refrigeration van covers all these collection points to facilitate them.

Bhubaneswar horticulture director has also agreed to provide cold storage facility at affordable rate to the farmers. "When the refrigeration van returns to Berhampur, we can dump our flowers in Bhubaneswar and wait till we get a profitable rate," said A. Bansi Krishna, a farmer from Parvatipur near Gopalpur.