Comprehension (46-50) : Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

During the decade after liberalization floriculture industries took giant steps in export arena. This era has seen a dynamic shift from sustenance production to commercial production. The area under floriculture production in India is around 249 thousand hectares with a production of 1659 thousand tones loose flowers and 484 thousand tones cut flowers. Floriculture is now commercially cultivated in several states with Tamil Nadu (20%), Karnataka (13.5%) West Bengal (12.2%) having gone ahead of other producing states like Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Haryana, Assam and Chhattisgarh.

Government of India has identified floriculture as a sunrise industry and accorded it 100% export oriented status, Owing o steady increase in the demand of flowers, floriculture has become one of the important commercial trades in agriculture Hence commercial floriculture has emerged as hitech activity-taking place under controlled climatic conditions inside greenhouse. Floriculture in India, is being viewed as a high growth industry. Commercial floriculture is becoming important form the export angle. The liberalization of industrial and trade policies paved the way for development of export-oriented production of cut flowers. The new seed policy had already made it feasible to import planting material of international varieties. It has been found that commercial floriculture has higher potential per unit area than most of the field crops and is therefore a lucrative business Indian floriculture industry has been shifting from traditional flowers to cut flowers for export purposes. The liberalized economy has given an impetus to the Indian entrepreneurs for establishing export oriented floriculture units under controlled climatic conditions.

Indian floriculture industry comprises of flowers such as Rose, Tuberose, Glads, Anthurium, Carnations, Marigold etc.

Indian’s total export of floriculture was Rs 571.38 crores/$81.94 million in 2018-19. The major importing countries were United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany and United Arab Emirates. There are more than 300 export-oriented units in India. More than 50% of the floriculture units are based in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. With the technical collaborations from foreign companies, the Indian floriculture industry is poised to increase its share in world trade.

Question-49 : What gave a major fillip to the export of Indian floriculture products?

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