Shillong, Oct 03: Dendrobium orchid cut flower production at Umsning Block. Ri-Bhoi district (an aspirational district of the state of Meghalaya) is a collaborative effort of the Bio Resources Development Centre (BRDC), Upper Shillong.
The Institute of Bio-resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Upper Shillong through financial support of BIRAC- BioNEST scheme under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India Meghalaya and other North Eastern states of the country are endowed with climate conducive for commercial production of orchids.
Among the commercial orchids Dendrobium hybrids occupy 85 per cent of the space. There is tremendous demand for Dendrobium cut flower spikes of commercial standards both in the national and export market. Locally, there is high demand for the flower especially during the peak wedding season, all souls day and other festivities.
In order to meet the demand, florists have to procure the orchid from Thailand or South India. The potential of raising commercial standard Dendrobium cut flowers in Meghalaya has not been tapped and this challenge has been taken up jointly by BRDC, Upper Shillong and IBSD, Meghalaya.
The present project aims to capitalize on Dendrobium cut flower commercial production in Meghalaya, so that bio-resource entrepreneurship is developed and a booming Dendrobium cut flower cottage scale industry is established across the state for gainful employment of women and youth of the region.
This project is conceived on Hub and Spoke model and aims at end-to-end demonstrations of commercial cut flower Dendrobium production technology right at the village level on cluster-based approach for farmers of Ri-Bhoi district. Meghalaya.
The area of the Central Hub is 1000 sq. M and those of the ten spokes is 300 sq. M each, and till date the implementing agencies has provided infrastructure, training and technical knowhow and planting materials to the Hub and spokes respectively.
The Central Hub is managed by an SHG having more than ten (10) members and similarly all the ten spokes are manged by the SHGS having 10 members each. The spokes are located in the cluster around the Central Hub.
The main function of the Hub is to fill in gaps that may arise in the spokes relating to quality planting materials at a mutually agreed rate that can generate revenue through the supply of planting materials to the spokes and also to act as a collection Centre for marketing of the produce.
