Jitendra Singh inaugurates India’s first ‘Lavendar Festival’ in Bhaderwah

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has inaugurated the country’s first ‘Lavendar festival’ at Jammu’s Bhaderwah where the cultivation of lavender has transformed the economy of the mountainous area. Bhaderwah in the Doda district is the birthplace of India’s purple revolution. The minister described Bhaderwah in the Doda district as the birthplace of India’s purple revolution.

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Key points:

• Lavender has changed the fortunes of farmers in Jammu and Kashmir under the ‘Aroma Mission or Purple Revolution’, an initiative of the Central government towards transforming the lives of UT’s farmers’ community.
• The Purple or Lavender Revolution was launched in 2016 by the Union Ministry of Science & Technology through the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s (CSIR) Aroma Mission.
• The aim of the mission is to support the domestic aromatic crop-based agroeconomy by moving from imported aromatic oils to homegrown varieties. Lavender cultivation is practised in almost all 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the mission:

• First-time farmers were given free lavender saplings while those who had cultivated lavender before were charged Rs. 5-6 per sapling. The mission promotes the cultivation of aromatic crops for essential oils that are in great demand by the aroma industry.
• In J&K, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (IIIM Jammu) are the two bodies responsible for taking the Aroma Mission forward.
• The CSIR Aroma Mission is envisaged to bring transformative change in the aroma sector through desired interventions in the areas of agriculture, processing, and product development for fuelling the growth of the aroma industry and rural employment.
• More than 800 progressive farmers of Doda have adopted aromatic cultivation which is now proved to be profitable.
• The mission was aimed to increase lavender cultivation to 1,500 hectares by 2024.

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