~ 4476 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2019; 7(5): 4476-4479 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 IJCS 2019; 7(5): 4476-4479 © 2019 IJCS Received: 01-07-2019 Accepted: 03-08-2019 Ganesh B Kadam ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India DVS Raju ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India Naveen Kumar ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India Prashant Kawar ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India Tarak Nath Saha ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India KV Prasad ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India Corresponding Author: Ganesh B Kadam ICAR-Directorate of Floricultural Research, College of Agriculture Campus, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra, India Analysis of flower marketing in India: A case study of Pune flower market Ganesh B Kadam, DVS Raju, Naveen Kumar, Prashant Kawar, Tarak Nath Saha and KV Prasad Abstract India is going to be urban nation which shall be adding 404 million people to its urban population between 2014 and 2050. The annual growth in urban population in India between 2010 and 2015 was 1.1% the highest among the major economies, according to the UN World Urbanisation Prospects Report 2014. Indian cities are already contributing more than 62% to our national GDP. This increasing population in urban areas and increased saying with flowers shall create the huge demand for the floricultural products in urban and peri-urban parts of many cities of India. To cater the need of flowers in urban areas, the flower markets are an important aspect of floriculture industry. Proper marketing facilities shall bridge the gap between producers and consumers and thereby fetching better returns to the farmers. Therefore efforts were made by our team to study the Gultekdi Market of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), Pune wherein traders and flower marketing patterns was studied. During survey, direct personal interviews were conducted at flower market and at flower shops. This was done with the aid of a questionnaire of open- end questions. Based on the data collected from 65 traders for their educational qualifications it was observed that most of respondents had attained higher secondary school education (41%), those who had attained secondary school education were 27%, the least had attained only post graduate (9%) and 20% had attained graduation. 100% of the respondents were men with variable ages. 31-40 years old were the majority with 32.30% followed by 41-50 years old with 29.23% and 51-60 with 20.00% whereas, the least were above 61 years old which constituted 6.15% followed by 21-30 with 12.30%. In APMC traders are creating jobs for youth and farmers. Based on the survey scoring was given and efforts were made to identify the major difficulties. The price fluctuation is major issue for traders and about 64% traders said its major difficulty for them. Whereas, lack of storage facility at market place is another issue which was raised by 54% of traders interviewed. Among traders, knowledge about market is also major challenge and about 50% of traders facing problem in everyday business. Based on the data obtained about 84% respondent provide guidance about planting time of flower crops and 83% respondents give information about trending varieties in the market. Such information shall be highly useful for the farmers for getting better returns and planning of crop calendar. Keywords: Flower market, traders, infrastructure, grading, cold chain Introduction Indian floriculture industry is growing in domestic as well as international levels. With increased purchasing power of consumers and changing lifestyle, the demand for flowers is ever increasing in domestic market. The area under flower crops in India is expanding which is presently stands at 3.06 lakh hectares with a production of 16.99 thousand MT loose flower and about 6.93 thousand MT of cut flowers (NHB Horticulture Statistic at a Glance, 2017) [1] . Intensive cultivation and higher returns per unit area in shorter time span attracted many growers into the business of floriculture. With increasing demand for flowers in urban and peri-urban areas the marketing of flowers as per need and at consumer’s doorsteps is becoming a challenge to growers. As per recent report India is going to be urban nation which shall be adding 404 million people to its urban population between 2014 and 2050 (UN World Urbanisation Prospects Report, 2014) [2] . The annual growth in urban population in India between 2010 and 2015 was 1.1% the highest among the major economies (UN World Urbanisation Prospects Report, 2014) [2] . Indian cities are already contributing more than 62% to our national GDP. This increasing population in urban areas and increasing trend of saying it with flowers shall create huge demand for floricultural products in urban and peri-urban parts of many cities of India. To cater the needs of flowers in urban areas, the flower markets are an important aspect of floriculture industry.