Flower farming and flower marketing in West Bengal : a study of efficiency and sustainability

For diversification in agriculture, one of the areas that have emerged as a fast growing sector recently in West Bengal is floriculture. In an attempt to examine empirically the relative efficiency between commercial traditional floriculture and its competing main field crops – Paddy, Jute, Potato, Wheat, Groundnut, Mustard, this paper observes that the economic efficiency related to both individual flower crop farming and mixed crop farming of all categories maintaince high economic efficiency for farms provided that selections of crops are made properly. This study does not imply an orderly marketing system for some categories of major commercial flower crops - rose, tuberose and bel - produced in alluvial zone in West Bengal, because the farmer - producers’ interest for fair price of these flowers is not supported to their growers during lean season. While examining the efficiency of flower marketing system, this paper does not support that the flower market in alluvial zone of West Bengal is efficient in nature, but, in general, marketing efficiency decreases with the increase in number of market intermediaries in a marketing channel