Here, farming means flowers, and flowers mean prosperity. Flower growing has changed the fortunes of many. In Savar upazila, every village in the three unions of Shyampur, Bongaon and Birulia is a flower village, with roses grown everywhere from fields to courtyards.

The flower revolution here began two decades ago, started by one or two far-sighted farmers before everyone joined this profitable crop. Like Godkhali in Jashore, the flower capital, Savar near Dhaka has had its own flower revolution, and bigha after bigha of roses carry the story of many people's socio-economic progress, a colourful economy.

This is Samair village in Birulia, where roses are grown almost everywhere. This rose field belongs to local young man Imran Hossain. After passing HSC he took up flower growing, the family tradition, to become self-reliant. As far as he knows, flowers have been grown here for 25 to 30 years. His venture is only seven years old, and he has already succeeded with seven bighas of Merinda roses.

Commercially, a bigha of flowers earns two to three times more than any other crop, and roses in particular make that profit fairly secure; a rose plant flowers for 20 years.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Krishi Dibanishi. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.