Lavender Cultivation’ in Ramban

According to Union Minister of State of Prime Minister’s office, Jitendra Singh, central government was planning to start ‘Purple Revolution’ in Ramban district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Highlights

• Purple revolution will be planned by encouraging lavender cultivation under CSIR-IIIM’s Aroma Mission through the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• It will be planned on lines of Doda and Reasi districts.
• Cultivation of Lavender can be started in Ramban for increasing income sources for youth of the district.
• In Doda and Reasi, more than 500 youth had taken the benefit from purple revolution and augmented their income.

Purple Revolution (Under Aroma Mission)

Under the mission, farmers were given free lavender saplings for the first time in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. Those who had cultivated lavender before were charged Rs. 5-6 per sapling. This revolution was started for supporting agro economy based on domestic aromatic crop by moving from imported aromatic oils to homegrown varieties.

Involved Agencies

Two bodies which are mainly responsible to make this initiative a success are, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu (IIIM Jammu) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Aroma Mission

CSIR has launched the Aroma Mission with the objective of bringing transformative change in aroma sector through desired interventions in areas of agriculture, processing and product development for the growth of aroma industry and rural employment. The mission promotes cultivation of aromatic crops for essential oils which are in great demand by aroma industry. It will help Indian farmers and aroma industry in becoming global leaders in production and export of essential oils. It aims to provide benefits to the farmers in achieving higher profits, protecting their crops and utilizing waste lands.