Bhaderwah: Jatinder Dev, a farmer from Gutasa village in Bhaderwah, a township in Jammu & Kashmir’s Doda district, first planted Lavender in two kanals (around 506 sq. meters each) of land three years ago. Last year, this land bloomed into a sea of fragrant purple, and he earned around Rs 15,000 from the harvest.
Dev is among the 1,200 farmers in Bhaderwah — located in Jammu division of the union territory — who have switched to Lavender plantation from traditionally growing maize and other grains, which did not fetch them much income.
In 2010, these purple flowers were brought to the region from Kashmir, as part of the central government’s attempts to uplift the local farming community and attract start-ups and agriculturists from across the country.
This was done as part of the ‘Aroma Mission’ of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
A group of farmers from the region were selected for a trial programme where they were given 2-3 kanals of land for cultivating Lavender.
These initiatives, coupled with the enthusiasm of the farmers, has boosted Lavender plantations in the Bhaderwah region, a growth coined as the ‘Purple Revolution’. Currently, there are more than 200 acres of land dedicated to Lavender cultivation in the region, which is projected to double by the end of the year.
In the region, villages of Tipri and Lehrote have 80 per cent farmers growing Lavender.
On 27 May, Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated India’s first ‘Lavender Festival’ at Bhaderwah.
“Lavender is an avenue of employment generation and research opening many paradigms of development for the region,” Singh had said at the time.
The minister had also inaugurated six distillation units for extraction of Lavender oil.
Lavender cultivation has reportedly employed around 5,000 farmers and young entrepreneurs in geographically remote areas of J&K and more than 1,000 farming families are cultivating it on more than 200 acres.
Ideal climate for Lavender cultivation
Bhaderwah, which is also known as ‘Chhota Kashmir’, has a mild cold climate during summers that is ideal for Lavender. These flowers grow in temperate areas and are drought-resistant crops. A single Lavender plant bears flowers for 15 years, needs low maintenance and can be used from the second year of plantation.
Under the Centre’s ‘One District, One Product’ scheme, Lavender has been designated as the Doda brand product.
According to Pawan Kumar, assistant floriculture officer, Doda, the farmers used to earn around Rs 3,000-4,000 from one kanal of crops, but after they started planting Lavender, the situation changed.
“When the cultivation started, in the second year, more than a litre of oil was extracted from one kanal of Lavender cultivation. The quality and quantity of oil significantly improved next year. Two to three litres of oil were extracted from the third year onwards. These farmers started earning around Rs 15,000-25,000 on one kanal, which is way more than what they made from traditional farming,” Kumar told ThePrint.
“This attracted a lot more farmers, as one litre of oil was sold at Rs 10,000,” he added.
Nurseries allow easy access to planting material
The Bhaderwah region witnessed a boom of Lavender flower production with the introduction of nurseries and supply planting materials between 2016 and 2019 under the Aroma Mission. Between 2018-19, the trial farmers were given two kanals of land each to use as nurseries. The region now has 15 nurseries, said Kumar.
With the establishment of nurseries, planting material became easily available for the farmers, compared to earlier when the plants were brought from Kashmir.
Kunjlal Bhagat, who owns nurseries and was also part of government trial programmes, said he sold around five lakh plants between 2019 and 2021 to local farmers. The nurseries are now supplying plants to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Ladakh.
Agriculturist Bharat Bhusan, who has been named brand ambassador of the ‘Purple Revolution in India’ told ThePrint that he earned around Rs 8 lakh growing Lavender on two hectares of land in a year.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)