Analysis of flower marketing in India: A case study of Pune flower market

Abstract

India is going to be urban nation which shall be adding 404 million people to its urban population between 2014 and 2050. The annual growth in urban population in India between 2010 and 2015 was 1.1% the highest among the major economies, according to the UN World Urbanisation Prospects Report 2014. Indian cities are already contributing more than 62% to our national GDP. This increasing population in urban areas and increased saying with flowers shall create the huge demand for the floricultural products in urban and peri-urban parts of many cities of India. To cater the need of flowers in urban areas, the flower markets are an important aspect of floriculture industry. Proper marketing facilities shall bridge the gap between producers and consumers and thereby fetching better returns to the farmers. Therefore efforts were made by our team to study the Gultekdi Market of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), Pune wherein traders and flower marketing patterns was studied. During survey, direct personal interviews were conducted at flower market and at flower shops. This was done with the aid of a questionnaire of open- end questions. Based on the data collected from 65 traders for their educational qualifications it was observed that most of respondents had attained higher secondary school education (41%), those who had attained secondary school education were 27%, the least had attained only post graduate (9%) and 20% had attained graduation. 100% of the respondents were men with variable ages. 31-40 years old were the majority with 32.30% followed by 41-50 years old with 29.23% and 51-60 with 20.00% whereas, the least were above 61 years old which constituted 6.15% followed by 21-30 with 12.30%. In APMC traders are creating jobs for youth and farmers. Based on the survey scoring was given and efforts were made to identify the major difficulties. The price fluctuation is major issue for traders and about 64% traders said its major difficulty for them. Whereas, lack of storage facility at market place is another issue which was raised by 54% of traders interviewed. Among traders, knowledge about market is also major challenge and about 50% of traders facing problem in everyday business. Based on the data obtained about 84% respondent provide guidance about planting time of flower crops and 83% respondents give information about trending varieties in the market. Such information shall be highly useful for the farmers for getting better returns and planning of crop calendar.