Maharashtra farmer Arjun Sabale transformed his family's traditional farm by adopting protected farming. By cultivating roses and gerberas in a polyhouse on just one acre, he now earns a remarkable Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 daily. His success story began with a small experiment and grew into a highly profitable, year-round enterprise.
For a farmer, growing more does not always mean earning more. Maharashtra farmer Arjun Sabale earns around Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 a day from just one acre of roses and gerberas. But roses and a big polyhouse were not where his quest started. His family had grown marigolds and chrysanthemums for centuries, bringing the flowers to Mumbai to be sold. Sabale began searching for a different strategy to boost the family farm's profitability as prices started to decline and competition grew.
According to 30Stades, Sabale turned to protected farming as a result of this issue. In 2016, he began with just 10 guntha, or around a quarter of an acre. What started out as a little experiment eventually grew into a flower-growing enterprise that now gives him year-round income.
He toured farms to study various crops while completing a BSc in Agriculture, and after witnessing polyhouse production, he became interested in protected flower farming. He discovered roses being grown in sheltered environments during this time.
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Sabale began by planting roses on 10 guntha, or around one-fourth of an acre. She spent about Rs 8,000 on planting material, which she purchased from a Bengaluru grower for Rs 12 per stem.
“Then I saw roses growing in a polyhouse and was impressed by cultivation under protected conditions. I began with roses on 10 guntha, or about one-fourth of an acre (10,000 sq ft) and expanded gradually,” he said.
After around six months, the allotment yielded 500 roses every day, which he sold locally for Rs 5 apiece, making about Rs 2,500 per day. He expanded and added gerberas as a result of the results.
With 16,000 plants of each crop, Sabale now cultivates gerberas and roses on one acre. He grows the Dutch hybrid tea rose variety known as Top Secret, or Taj Mahal. Every day, the farm produces about 2,000 gerberas and 1,000 roses. These produce about Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000 per day, respectively, at Rs 5 per rose and Rs 4 each gerbera stick.
With a monthly sales of more than Rs 3.5 lakh and a net profit of about Rs 2.5 lakh, Sabale makes between Rs 12,000 and Rs 13,000 per day. He cultivates gerberas and roses in a naturally ventilated polyhouse that relies on side curtains and roof vents rather than electric cooling fans. In 2015–16, his first 10,000-square-foot building cost about Rs 3 lakh.
The initial cost may be amortised over a number of years because the plants can continue to produce for five to seven years. He employs micro sprinklers, drip irrigation, and weekly spraying to control pests. While gerberas are provided to Bengaluru, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Mumbai based on demand, flowers are sold directly to stalls and wholesale marketplaces.
