Lavender

Union Minister of Science and Technology has inaugurated India’s ‘First Lavender Festival’ in Bhaderwah.

Details –

• He described Bhaderwah as the birthplace of India’s Purple Revolution and said that Bhaderwah is the potential destination of Agri-tech StartUps of the country.
• India’s first National Institute of High Altitude Medicine is also being built in Bhaderwah.
• Bhaderwah (also Bhadarwah Valley) is a town, tehsil and sub-division in the district Doda of Jammu.

About ‘Lavender’ –

• Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae.
• The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish.
• Lavender has been used over centuries in traditional medicine and cosmetics.
• CSIR-AROMA Mission, under the Ministry of Science & Technology aims to develop and disseminate the aroma-related science and technology to reach the end user/clients of CSIR: Farmers, industry and society.

What is the ‘purple revolution’?

• In 2016, the Centre launched Aroma Mission to boost the cultivation of plants like lavender which have aromatic medicinal properties.
• The mission is to increase lavender cultivation to 1,500 hectares within three years.
• The Aroma Mission, also popularly referred as “Lavender or Purple Revolution“, has started from J&K and transformed the lives of farmers who are able to grow lavender, make lucrative profit and improve their lives.
• Apart from providing planting material, distillation units are provided and farmers are trained in extraction and many of them have become entrepreneurs as lavender oil is quite sought after.
• Apart from Lavender, many high value Aromatic and Medicinal cash crops have been introduced by CSIR in J&K.
• It is now being expanded as Aroma Mission Phase II and also floriculture mission has been recently launched.