Kadiyam nurseries spread in 3,500 acres in 11 villages of Kadiyam mandal in East Godavari are doing good business and providing considerable employment to about 20,000 agriculture labour.
However, the nurseries which generate revenue running into several crores per annum are also facing hardships on two accounts. One is exports and other is lack of exposure related to research. Though the All India Nurserymen Association (AINA) has taken up these two issues at different levels with the Central government, it has not yielded results till date.
The scenic beauty of Kadiyam nurseries is often seen in South Indian films . After 2003, All India Nurserymen Summit in this village, Kadiyapu Lanka, which was inaugurated by then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the domestic nursery business has almost doubled. From 2011, two to three big nursery farmers started exporting nursery plants to Middle East, particularly to Dubai, Doha, Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.
But, there is no encouragement from the State or Union government.
“So, we decided to conduct our national summit with our member farmers and invite government officials from Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR), National Horticulture Board (NHB) and Directorate of Floriculture Research (DFR) to expand our export network,” said Pulla Veera Venkata Rao, vice-president of AINA and managing director of Sri Satyadeva Nursery, largest nursery in Kadiyam mandal. The Satyadeva Nursery got national and international recognition for its “family-farmer business concept” and Mr. Venkat Rao was invited to about 10 countries to present the scenario of Kadiyam nurseries.
The representatives of Imperial Trading and Contracting from Doha, Qatar and V. Jayakannan, Managing Director of Finegreen Exports, Chennai have already visited Kadiyapu Lanka and held preliminary discussions to hold the International Summit on possibilities of more exports from the 11 nursery villages. “Till know we are doing business from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, now we decided to go for transnational business,” added Mr. Veera Venkat Rao.
Mr. Rao who won ‘Best Nurserymen’ in the country from Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi during “Vibrant Gujarat Summit-2013” is putting all his efforts to impress upon Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Director General of ICAR S. Ayyappan and Director, National Horticulture Board R.K. Agarwal to establish Directorate of Floriculture Research in Rajahmundry or Venkataramannagudem, West Godavari.
