On one side there are green paddy and vegetable fields, on the other side forested hills full of trees. On their side, rose and gladiolus gardens have made this look of rural Bengal even more fascinating with their beauty and fragrance.
Various flowers including rose are cultivated commercially on both sides of the Cox's Bazar-Chittagong highway passing through Chakaria Baraitali Union of Cox's Bazar. Although roses are grown all year round in this rural area, the real season for rose farming is in winter. At this time, roses, gladiolus and some other flowers blooms flatteringly bringing smile on Farmer’s face.
Weddings, Gaye Holud (a ceremonial part of wedding celebration of putting turmeric on bride and groom’s bodies), various meetings, gatherings and national programmes are decorated with flowers. So there is a huge demand for flowers throughout the year. Although flowers are cultivated in different districts of the country including Savar of Dhaka, Jashore and Kushtia, over the last one decade, the flowers produced in Chakaria of South Chattogram have become partners in meeting the demand of the capital besides Greater Chattogram.
Even though the market demand for real flowers has declined due to availability of artificial flowers made of cloth and plastic, the value of organic ones has not decreased yet. This time the demand of organic flowers has reached the sky marking Pohela Falgun (1st day of Bengali spring season), Valentine’s Day and upcoming International Mother Language Day on February 21. Flower growers have been working hard for several days to make more profit by supplying flowers on these days.
Chakriya flower growers are working with the target of selling flowers worth at least half a crore taka marking these three days being held within in a week. Since February 11, the farmers of the area have increased the supply of flowers in different parts of the country including the port city.
Visiting the area on Saturday, it was found that there were rows of flower gardens one after another in Baraitali Union, adjacent to the highway. Tourists heading to the tourist district of Cox's Bazar also notice this fragrant flower orchards.
Apart from Baraitali, there are flower gardens of more than 100 people in the whole upazila. These flowers have been cultivated commercially on at least 100 acres of land.
While visiting many men and women were seen tending to the garden, picking flowers and taking them to the farm house in a bundle. From there, the flowers were being taken to station for transporting to various places including Chittagong for sale. According to the farmers, before the heat of the sun rises, gladiolus is picked up and sent to different areas whereas, roses are picked all day from dawn.
Rafiqul Islam, a local florist, has grown roses on about two acres and gladiolus on one acre of land while another florist Borhan Uddin has grown gladiolus on 33 decimal and roses on 1.4 acres. There are 10-15 workers in each of their flower gardens and most of them are female workers as the demand for women workers in flower gardening is high.
These two farmers said, they have cultivated the land by renting them with Tk 20,000-25,000 per Kani. Once a grafted rose is planted, flowers can be collected for 4-5 years whereas, gladiolus has to be sold within a period of three months after planting. According to them, it costs Tk 1 lakh to cultivate flowers on 40 decimal of land and good profit can be made from this if there is demand and fair price can be ensured.
They added that the cost of producing a gladiolus is Tk 4-5 and the selling price is Tk 7 whereas, rose production costs forty to fifty paisa per flower and sold at Tk 3- 4. However, when the market demand decreases, it is difficult to get back the cost of farming, they said.
Moinul Islam, Convener of Baraitali Flower Garden Association, said flower cultivation was stopped for eight months due to the corona pandemic. During that time we suffered a lot. Many have stopped cultivating flowers. Due to which flower cultivation has declined. Now the overall situation is better. Hopefully, we will be able to make up the loss somehow.
He said hundreds of people in Chakaria have planted flowers on at least a few hundred acres of land this year. Although flowers were cultivated on 3 to 3.5 hundred acres of land two years ago. However, flower farming is decling every year due to spread of artificial flowers. Nevertheless, more flowers are sold as the demand increases on special days. At this time, each farmer earns a profit of Tk 2 to 3 lakh.
He further said that not only more than a hundred farmers, but also 3 to 4 thousand working families make a living by working in the flower garden of Chakriya. Many workers used to work on other people's land but now they have started commercial farming on their own land.
SM Nasir Hossain, an official of Chakaria Upazila office of the Department of Agricultural Extension said roses have been cultivated on 83 hectares or 205 acres of land and gladiolus on 52 hectares or 128 acres of land in Chakaria. Officially there is no opportunity to help flower growers. So we can only advise them on the cultivation instead of thorough cooperation.
He added that the Upazila Administration and the Department of Agricultural Extension have taken a plan to develop the flower gardens of Baraitali as a tourist spot. These issues have also been discussed with the flower growers. Moreover, measures are being taken to bring the flower growers back to flower cultivation by identifying various problems including water supply problem.