The department is also holding training workshops for the women to help them set up the farms.

Director, Floriculture, K K Sharma said the department had received many requests from people, including women, seeking permission to set up flower farms.

“Given the interest evinced by women, we launched a special drive for them in the state to train them in commercial floriculture.

“Once they are involved the trade, they will also contribute towards the export of different varieties of flowers,” Sharma said. He said that training camps are underway at Nagrota, Bhaderwah, Jammu, Kathua, Samba, R S Pura and others.

At present, about 300 hectares of land in the state is under cultivation of different varieties of flowers, particularly marigold, jasmine, aster, rose, chrysanthemum and tuberose. The state is already exporting flowers worth Rs 2 crore annually and more than 300 people are associated with this sector at present.

President, J&K Flower Growers’ Association, Tejinder Singh said that flower cultivation has huge employment potential.

“Our association is encouraging women as well as the unemployed youth to take up flower cultivation but we need state-of-the-art infrastructure to compete with other parts of the country,” Singh said.

The state still cannot boast of cold storage facilities, refrigeration vans and green houses for flowers. Besides, the cultivation process is still archaic, making it difficult for cultivators to make forays in the international market.

Therefore, in view of the shortage of infrastructure for processing of flowers, the floriculture department is only encouraging cultivation of traditional varieties as they need less processing facilities and have a shelf life of more than one day. The state agriculture department, under the technology mission, is also hoping to capitalise on the interest shown by farmers in this sector.

The government has chalked out other plans to give an impetus to floriculture. “In the coming years, a suitable budget would be earmarked for promoting and developing floriculture sector in the state and modern facilities would be in place to provide a single platform for the farmers to market the flowers, ” said the Director.

According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which is responsible for export promotion and development of floriculture in India, commercial floriculture has higher potential per unit area than most of the field crops.