India’s first little farming farm is now part of a large project, and a white flower farmer says he’s “delighted”.
“I think we’re the biggest little agriculture project ever.
We’re the only ones here in the world that have two crops, two different crops, one in the morning, one at night,” said Manoj Bhattacharya, a farmer and director of the Indian flower farming project.
Bhattachary’s team started the project in 2013, but it took several years to finish.
Now, it’s growing more than 1,000 hectares of grass, pea, and watermelon fields.
The white flower project is a partnership between the National Seedbank of India (NSBI) and the government-owned agricultural development corporation.
It aims to grow the flowers for food in remote areas and is hoping to eventually grow them on a farm in a city.
“This project is the biggest agricultural project ever in the country, it will take us many years to complete, but I am happy that we have achieved this,” said Bhattadary.
“It’s the first little farm in the whole world, and I think it will be a huge project.”
Farmers have been planting the flowers on the farm for more than a year.
The project has brought more than 200 people from all over the country to the field.
Bhattapari Singh, a farm owner in Rajasthan’s Khushalpur district, said he was excited about the project.
“We are looking forward to the day when we can grow flowers on our farm,” he said.
“There’s no need for a lot of work.
This is what we were born to do.
We will make flowers for the farmers and we will earn the farm a living.”
The farm’s new location in Mumbai’s Gurgaon district has also helped the project grow.
The farm’s owners have been making their flowers on site since 2013.
The flowers are being cultivated by a team of about 50 volunteers who have been working since January, and it’s only now that they’ve started producing the first crop.
“I have a very good feeling, we are now in the stage of creating the first harvest,” said farmer Suresh Kumar.
Bhaagir Khatri, an agronomist with the NSBI, said the team has grown so many flowers in such a short time.
“The team was so motivated and worked hard, and we are very happy that they achieved this success,” he told Al Jazeera.
The farm is the largest small-scale agricultural project in India.
It is also one of the few small-to-medium scale projects to be approved by the government.
The initiative has raised funds of around $10 million and has so far received over 10 million rupees ($12.3 million) from the government to produce the first seeds.
Khatri said the farm will be one of several small farms in the future.