Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh will inaugurate 2-day ‘Lavender festival’ at Bhaderwah in Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow, 6, under the theme “Lavender goes Global”. The 4th Lavender Festival is being held at Government Degree College Bhaderwah in Doda district on June 6 and 7. Organised by CSIR-IIIM, the event is themed as “Lavender goes Global”, celebrating the “continued success of the purple revolution and lavender-based rural entrepreneurship in J&K”.
During the two-day event, exhibitions of value-added lavender products, including essential oils, soaps, cosmetics, cultural programs, and showcases of agricultural startups, would be held. The festival would witness enthusiastic participation of scientists, startups, aroma industries, entrepreneurs, policymakers, agri-business stakeholders, students, progressive farmers and representatives of fragrance and wellness companies from across the country.
Farmers, students, startups, researchers, industry representatives, media persons and members of civil society from J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and across the country have been invited to attend the festival and witness the success story of the “Purple revolution in Bhaderwah”.” Special invitation was also extended to the national and regional media organisations, journalists, digital content creators and documentary filmmakers to extensively cover the festival and highlight the transformation of the Himalayan rural economy through lavender cultivation and aroma-based entrepreneurship.
The festival highlights the massive success of the CSIR-Aroma Mission, which has transformed the rural economy of the Himalayan region by allowing farmers to switch from traditional maize crops to high-value lavender. The region recorded an overall business turnover of Rs. 10.5 crore recently, with Bhaderwah producing 15 hundred kilograms of lavender oil and 93 thousand kilograms of dried flowers in previous harvest cycles. During the three phases of this mission completed, more than 50 fixed and mobile distillation units across J&K were installed to support local-level processing of lavender produce. The CSIR Aroma Mission Team was recently awarded the prestigious Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar (Vigyan Team Award) for their outstanding work.
