Explanation:

Cultivation of lavender has changed fortunes of farmers in Jammu and Kashmir farmers who quit maize crop cultivation to take up the new crop.

Lavender cultivation is practiced in almost all the 20 districts of Jammu & 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.

Kashmir provides the best climatic conditions conducive to lavender plantations as it grows well in cold temperatures and moderately warm summers and needs one or two irrigations during the rain-fed periods.

This cash crop has a gestation period of two years before reaching economic productivity.

The plant, best known as a crop in Mediterranean countries, requires lots of sunlight but needs little water.