Spain: Strawberry revenues grew by 20.7% mandarin by 12.6%

Strong berry and citrus economic performance consolidates the strength of Huelva`s horticulture sector, according to Cajamar. Oranges are set back because of low consumption.

The last fruit and vegetable campaign, 2010/2011, in the province of Huelva had very good economic results, according to the analysis of the Cajamar Foundation. Yesterday, this foundation made public that production grew by 7.9%. The financial report has the support of the Agribusiness Technology Center, Adesva. Among the conclusions found in the study strawberries stood out, followed by raspberries, which took off well last season. The mandarin stood out as the star product of the province. These three fruits have become "the strength" of the sector in markets. Strawberries, raspberries and mandarins have two main features for consumers, quality and health guarantees. Both features were more than justified after the E.coli crisis, which caused a sharp downturn in sales, but was finally overcome with flying colors.

The strawberry crop keeps first place in the horticulture landscape, with an increase in price, which has led to an increase in revenues up to 20.7%. These two positive figures come from the hand of several factors that have led to a good production both in quantity and quality (with an increased tonnage of 8.5%), despite that the number of hectares under cultivation were significantly reduced. The growth results are justified by the good weather both at the start of the season and during the period of greatest production, which favored a staggered harvest that lasted well into spring.

Read full article: FreshPlaza.com

How to make African daisies bloom all year-round

Article By JUSTIN B. MORELOS provides insight into the cultural requirements; e.g. lighting, temperature, soil mix, fertilization, under indoor conditions to promote year long blooming of Gerbera Daisies.

Link to article from the Manila Bulletin>

Farmers reap rich dividends from Gerbera cultivation

Uttarakhand, December 23 (ANI): With the Christmas and New Year round the corner, farmers in Uttarakhand cultivating ornamental flower Gerbera are eagerly looking forward to cashing in on the festive spirit. These farmers are already reaping rich dividends from Gerbera cultivation in the region. The central and state governments are promoting cultivation of Gerbera by offering subsidies through the National Horticulture Board and the states national gardening board.

Cultivation practices of anthurium

Cultivation practices of anthurium, kissan krishideepam
(In local language)

Training Workshop of Propagation and Cultivation of Floriculture and MAP

Over the years, it has been noticed that people of Bhutan has developed affinity to flowers which can be gauged by the number of people visiting shops which are keeping potted plants in Trade fair and any fair organized in Thimphu. Also the numbers of requests to BAFRA for giving clearance to applicants for import permit for the import of ornamental and flower plants have gone up year after year. The export market for flowers is estimated to be worth $ 10 billion which is increasing at the rate of 6-9 % every year. The market is not only for potted plants but also includes cut flowers, dry flower and flower related products like potpouri. There is an ever increasing flower market the world over, however, almost no research and development work has been done in Bhutan so far although Bhutan is a home to numerous sources of flowers because of its vast biodiversity of flowering plants.
There is a vast potential for flowers for the domestic as well as export market especially in India. We can take advantage of the festival season in India for export of cut flowers as we have a very conducive growing climate and environment to grow flowers.

The CoRRB has been doing mainstream research on Horticulture especially on fruits and vegetable. In order to address the demand for ornamental and flower plants first within the country, CoRRB had been contemplating to carry out some research on flowers. However, due to lack of technical expertise in the field, we could not do much so far. Now, with the intention of initiating some work on floriculture, four-days training workshop on Floriculture and MAP (Medicinal and Aromatic Plants) was organized by the Council for RNR Research of Bhutan at RNRRC-Jakar from 2-5 June, 2009 with financial support from UNESCO and CFC-MAP. There were 3 resource persons namely Dr. S. Jaganath, Chief Scientific Officer from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; Dr. Nishritha Bopana, Science Officer, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, New Delhi and Mr. Tshitila, MAP Specialist, RNRRC-Yusipang. The participants mainly consisted of researchers from four Research Centres, Agriculture Extension Agents and Farm Managers.

The objective of this training workshop was to make the participants aware about the various aspects of floriculture and to enhance their technical capacities on the cultivation and propagation of floriculture and MAP. It is expected that the participants will be able to take up the research on floriculture henceforth although in a small scale. For the first time, research on floriculture has featured as one of the activities of the 10th five year plan.

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