Intercropping Heliconia with coconut is remunerative

Abstract

Heliconia is emerging as an important cut flower in India which can be grown as intercrop in coconut gardens. At present, marketing is concentrated in domestic markets of metros which itself is fetching high profit. The scope of exporting needs to be explored. The major constraint of exporting is the weight of inflorescence. A single inflorescence of many commercial varieties weighs even up to 750g. Heliconia stricta Iris is a potential variety for exporting as it has the qualities of grade one flowers such as more than 1 m inflorescence length and girth, plane arrangement of bracts, unique colour, lesser number of flowers inside the bract coupled with lesser inflorescence weight of up to 250g. The export market for Heliconias can be boosted by giving brand names and exporting to developed countries such as USA, Australia, UK where the demand for these tropical ornamentals is very high.