Adoption of commercial cut flower production technology in Meerut.

In India the area under cultivation of different flowers is 103,000 ha. About 99 per cent of the flowers are cultivated in open condition and only 1 per cent under greenhouse condition. Postharvest management and value addition to cut flowers can enhance prices up to 5-10 times. Gladiolus and tuberose, two very popular cut flower crops in India are grown mainly in the temperate parts country. The study was conducted in Meerut and Ghaziabad districts of Uttar Pradesh. The majority of the cut flower cultivators were found to have high (31.3 per cent), very high (28.8 per cent) and medium (20 per cent) level of knowledge of cut flower cultivation technology. Majority of the respondents (80 %) were found to possess high to medium adoption in gladiolus production technology whereas 80 percent tuberose cultivators were found to possess medium to high adoption. In case of gladiolus, the adoption of commercial cut flower cultivation technology was found to be positively and significantly correlated with their education, social participation, and experience in flower cultivation, extension agency contact and mass media exposure. The adoption of commercial tuberose cultivation technology was found to be positively and significantly correlated with their education and mass media exposure, land holding and social participation, caste, family size, occupation, extension contact, economic motivation, risk orientation and experience in flower cultivation.