Kattakada grows its own blooms for Onam

Kudumbashree venture follows call by MLA to use local flowers this time

Sunitha V.J., a Kudumbashree member and Kattakada block panchayat member, is both excited and amused as she recounts how her orange and yellow marigolds that are in full bloom on a one-acre plot near her house at Kollode in Kattakada grama panchayat have become a backdrop for selfies and Save the Dates.

Sunitha had planted 2,000 hybrid saplings of marigolds by June end following a call by Kattakada MLA I.B. Satheesh to create the Onam ‘pookkalams’ (floral carpets) this year using flowers grown locally, rather than those brought from other States. The goal of self-sufficiency has been more than achieved for Sunitha is expecting a harvest of minimum 300 kg of flowers.

When the idea of floriculture was mooted, she was unsure whether the local conditions would be conducive. With the support of the Krishi Bhavan officials and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers, the land was readied and saplings planted. Though rain did give a few anxious moments, the results have been surprising and gloriously colourful. “My plot looks like another Thovala (from where the bulk of flowers for Onam reach the markets in the district),” says Sunitha.

Her sentiments are echoed by Pushkala S., Kudumbashree area development society chairperson of Kurandivila in Pallichal grama panchayat. “It is difficult to describe the feeling that one gets on seeing our flowers grow so well,” she says.

Here again, marigolds are being cultivated on 93 cents of land by nearly 10 people, including Pushkala, for the first-time as an experiment. Some of the flowers have been harvested and will be sold at the Onam market. In all, nearly five acres of land in the panchayat is under floriculture. There are plans to continue with the flower cultivation even after Onam, especially as this is the ‘Year of Entrepreneurship.’ There is good demand too, with many orders for the flowers coming in, says Pushkala.

In Maranalloor panchayat, Kudumbashree joint liability groups have taken up floriculture on leased land in three locations, besides growing flowers in and around their homes. The flowers are just starting to bloom, so they are not sure of how much the eventual yield would be. Rain and a blight have affected the flowers somewhat, says Santhakumari J., Kudumbashree community development society chairperson. Since the price in the open market is somewhat less, the plan is to sell flowers at the Onam market locally. Whatever be the fate of their current crop, the way ahead definitely involves floriculture, she says.