CFTRI’s Freshness Keeper to extend shelf life of cut flowers
3 min read
Mysuru: A one-day industry meeting for the Floriculture mission on the theme” Advancing
Floriculture, Opportunities and Sustainability” was held at CSIR –CFTRI, Mysore
recently (March 3, 2025), where stakeholders of the floriculture business participated.
Manjunath Angadi, Deputy Director of Department of Horticulture, inaugurated the industry meet along with Dr Sridevi A Singh, Director of CSIR-CFTRI and other dignitaries. Dr P Giridhar, Chief Scientist& Nodal Scientist for the Floriculture Mission & Head, FSAQCL in his opening remarks stated that the primary goal of the Floriculture Mission in India is to significantly enhance farmers’ income by promoting high-value floriculture through advanced cultivation techniques, development of new flower varieties, value-added products and capacity building.
Along with CSIR-NBRI, the nodal centre for this mission, other labs such as CFTRI, Mysore, CIMAP, Lucknow, IHBT, Palampur and NEIST, Jorhat are actively involved.
Further he shared insights about the
floriculture project, discussing its goals and achievements at the national level in its first and second phases.
R S Matche, Chief Scientist & Head, Food Packaging Technology Department addressed the meeting’s theme, focusing on cold chain management for Mysore Mallige Flowers. He emphasised the need for field trials in collaboration with the state government and highlighted CFTRI’s work on a new formula, ‘Freshness Keeper’, that helps extend the freshness of cut flowers.
A short video showcasing CFTRI’s activities related to floriculture project was presented.
The Chief Guest, Manjunath Angadi, then spoke about the importance of floriculture in Karnataka and suggested that scientists connect with farmers to inform them about new developments. This knowledge can help farmers adopt better flower varieties and improve their profitability.
He noted that India is the second largest
producer of floriculture crops after China, yet our export potential is below 6%. He
encouraged exploring the different agro climates across India, which are well-suited for various floriculture crops.
He also mentioned that the state government is considering applying artificial intelligence and automation in floriculture to address farmers’ challenges.
Dr Sridevi A Singh, in her presidential address, highlighted the potential benefits of floral
pigments as food colours, the value addition to used flowers (conversion of waste to wealth), a purple revolution in J&K through lavender cultivation and the development of high-quality flower varieties by various CSIR laboratories such as NBRI, CIMAP and IHBT.
The Scientists and students involved in a floriculture mission project from CFTRI and scientists from other labs Virat Abhishek and Shiv Kumar from CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, Dr V Sundaresan, CSIR-CIMAP in Lucknow, Dr Tridip Phukan from CSIR-NEIST in Jorhat, along with industry stakeholders and others deliberated in this meet.
Two technical sessions were held as part of this event, during which representatives from
CSIR-IHBT, CSIR-CIMAP, CSIR-NEIST, and CSIR-CFTRI, Mysore, gave brief presentations
on the products developed and technologies in the pipeline under the Floriculture Mission
project.
On this occasion, the cut-flower shelf-life-extending technology ‘Freshness Keeper’ was transferred to M/s Suvarna Florex Limited, Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
As a part of this event, CSIR-CFTRI, and other CSIR labs displayed products and technologies developed from Floriculture Mission. Finally, a panel discussion was conducted on Market Opportunities &
Industry Readiness and Stakeholder Collaboration & Sustainability.
– Team Mysoorunews
Mysooru News
