Doda to host lavender festival

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM) will organise a festival to promote lavender in Bhaderwah (Doda district) of Jammu and Kashmir.

CSIR- Aroma Mission:

• The CSIR-AROMA Mission aims to develop and disseminate the aroma-related science and technology to reach the end users / clients of CSIR: Farmers, industry and society.
• The mission aims to bring additional area under captive cultivation of aromatic cash crops, particularly targeting rain-fed and degraded land across the country besides aiming to provide technical and infra-structural support for distillation and value additions to farmers and growers all over the country. 
• The Mission also aims to enable effective buy-back mechanisms to assure remunerative prices to the farmers and growers besides aiming to achieving value-addition to essential oils and aroma ingredients for their integration into global trade and economy.
• It provided free quality planting material and end-to-end technology package on cultivation, processing, value addition and marketing of the Lavender crop to the farmers.
  

About Lavender:

• A Mediterranean native, Lavender (Lavandula spica) is an aromatic and herbal shrub.
• Highly perfumed and beautiful flowers of the plant come in a variety of colors, for example, violet, blue, pink, mauve, and white can prove an excellent addition to your garden decor.
• The plant is perennial and requires a dry and sunny climate to grow.
• It is usually cultivated in regions with less rainfall.
• The soil for growing these plants needs to be well-draining and rich in calcium carbonate content. 

Lavender producing States

• At present, large-scale lavender cultivation is limited to Jammu & Kashmir but governments in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are also encouraging their farmers to take up lavender.
• Small scale farming of the plant is already underway in these states.

Aroma Mission

• In 2016, the Centre launched Aroma Mission to boost cultivation of plants like lavender, rosemary and lemon grass and medicinal plants like ashwagandha and satavar which have aromatic medicinal properties. 
• The state of Jammu and Kashmir was chosen for the implementation of the program, due to its peculiar climate, which is complimented by the presence of a growing market for the products of these plants, like aromatic oils.
• The mission was launched with the objective to move from imported aromatic oils to homegrown varieties.
• In February, 2021, Government announced Aroma Mission phase 2 after the success of the first phase.
• The mission is to increase lavender cultivation to 1,500 hectares within three years from now.