How Maharashtra farmer built Rs 3.5-lakh-a-month flower business on quarter-acre plot

During visits to different farms, Arjun Sabale came across polyhouse farming and became interested in growing flowers under controlled conditions.

3 min readNew DelhiSep 10, 2026 06:58 PM IST

Sabale makes around Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 a day. His monthly turnover is above Rs 3.5 lakh, while his net profit is close to Rs 2.5 lakh.

For Maharashtra farmer Arjun Sabale, the key to earning more from farming was not growing more crops, but making better use of limited land. Today, he earns around Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 a day from roses and gerberas grown on just one acre.

Sabale comes from a family that has traditionally grown marigold and chrysanthemum. For years, they would take their flowers to Mumbai to sell them. But as prices dropped and competition grew, the returns from conventional flower farming became increasingly difficult to sustain.

That pushed Sabale to explore other options. As reported by the 30Stades website, he began looking into protected cultivation while studying for a BSc in Agriculture. During visits to different farms, he came across polyhouse farming and became interested in growing flowers under controlled conditions.

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In 2016, “I began with roses on 10 guntha, or about one-fourth of an acre (10,000 sq ft) and expanded gradually,” he said. He purchased planting material from a grower in Bengaluru at Rs 12 per stem and initially spent around Rs 8,000.

The first results gave him confidence to continue. Around six months after planting, the small plot began producing nearly 500 roses a day. Sabale sold them locally for Rs 5 each, bringing in about Rs 2,500 a day.

Encouraged by the earnings, he expanded the operation and introduced gerberas. His farm now has one acre under roses and gerberas, with around 16,000 plants of each crop.

Sabale grows the Top Secret, also known as Taj Mahal, variety of Dutch hybrid tea rose. Together, the two crops produce roughly 1,000 roses and 2,000 gerbera sticks every day. At the prevailing rates of Rs 5 per rose and Rs 4 per gerbera stick, the daily revenue from the two crops works out to around Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000, respectively.

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Overall, Sabale makes around Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 a day. His monthly turnover is above Rs 3.5 lakh, while his net profit is close to Rs 2.5 lakh.

The flowers are grown inside a naturally ventilated polyhouse, which relies on roof vents and side curtains to maintain airflow rather than powered cooling systems. Sabale’s first 10,000-sq-ft polyhouse cost around Rs 3 lakh in 2015-16.

The investment is spread over several years as the plants can remain productive for five to seven years. He uses drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers for watering and sprays the plants every week to manage pests.

Instead of depending on a single market, Sabale sells the flowers directly to stalls and wholesale markets. Gerberas are also sent to cities including Bengaluru, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Mumbai, depending on demand.

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