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Flowers sell cheaply on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, adding fire to the efforts of Aleya Begum and several other children nearly begging for sales at a stoplight.

Ten roses fresh from the garden cost 5 taka (6 US cents), and Aleya said her average daily income is about $4.

Flowers are becoming an important source of income for many in Bangladesh.

The new interest is helping many in this nation where nearly one-third of the nation's 160 million population survive on just $1.25 a day.

Ten years ago there was no flower market in the town, but now it has one with over a dozen stalls, and several more stalls on sidewalks.

When Montu Miah began his business 15 years ago as a flower vendor, he earned 100 taka a day at most. Now his daily income is 30 times that, allowing him to pay for a home of his own and put his son and daughter through a local college.

People now take flowers on hospital visits, instead of the traditional fruit, and flowers are also popular as presents at weddings, birthdays, and many holiday celebrations.

"I think this change started about 15 years ago when going abroad by Bangladeshi people for work and other purposes increased significantly," said Imdadul Haq Milon, a lifestyle commentator and editor of a leading Bengali newspaper.

"They saw how people in other countries use flowers to celebrate important occasions and have incorporated it into our culture, resulting in the use of flowers increasing here."

As a result, people in the Bangladeshi countryside now cultivate flowers on land previously used to grow rice and other crops, because it is more profitable. Grower Abu

Salam said he earned 50,000 taka through selling flowers last year, up 30 percent from crops a year ago.

Production has grown so sharply that the country, which once imported flowers from places such as India or Thailand, is now an exporter.

Questions

1. How much of Bangladesh’s population survives on only $1.25 a day?

2. What was a majority land used for flower-cultivation previously used for?

3. Where did Bangladesh previously import flowers from?

Answers

1. Nearly one third.

2. Rice and other crop production.

3. India and Thailand.

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

?Christine Mallari is an intern at China Daily. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in a nearby suburb before moving for college. After recently graduating from the University of Iowa with a degree in English, Journalism and Mass Communications, she moved to Beijing to work with China Daily. Though she has been working in journalism since high school, this is her first time doing so abroad.