Kerala minister’s home blooms with 3,000 marigold plants

Cherthala: Agriculture Minister of Kerala P. Prasad’s home in Cherthala has turned into a colourful sight due to the full blossom of different kinds of marigolds. He has cultivated about 3,000 marigold plants on 30 cents of land, just before Onam. Mr. Prasad has grown three types of marigolds: yellow, orange, and white.

He stated that a good harvest and earnings from the previous year encouraged him to begin flower harvesting again, and he successfully did it in the second consecutive year. He just took a break for the vegetable farming. Last year, he produced 2,500 marigold plants and 250 globe amaranths for Onam.

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Anyone can purchase flowers from the minister’s house at affordable prices. Apart from Mr. Prasad, several farmers, women’s self-help groups, and others in Cherthala taluk have started following the footstep of the minister. They are now growing marigolds, globe amaranth, and Ceylon slitwort on their respective lands with an aim to fulfill the huge demand of flowers during Onam. Visitors are enticing towards their gardens and enjoying photoshoots as well.

In Kanjikuzhy Grama Panchayat, flower farming has been taking place on several acres of land to grow chemical-free flowers to use in floral carpets. This really helped in reducing the need to import flowers from other states. Several district panchayat officials and other dignitaries went to see the attractive colours of flowers.