First Lavender Farm comes up in J&K

Jammu, Oct 29 (PTI) Expanding the purple revolution to new areas, the first-ever Lavender Farm is coming up at Challa village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, officials said on Sunday.

Spread over two hectares of land owned by the Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, the farm witnessed the planting of the first sample of lavender by District Development Council (DDC) member Reeta Thakur on Sunday, Chief Agriculture Officer, Kathua, Sanjeev Rai Gupta said.

A native of Europe, lavender was introduced by the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) in the temperate regions of the Jammu division under the CSIR-Aroma Mission in 2018, which led to Doda becoming the birthplace of India’s purple revolution.

“This farm (in Bani) will raise awareness about lavender cultivation among the farming community and will set examples in future as an alternate source of income, which will also boost the economy of the region,” Gupta said.

He thanked the Director Agriculture Kashmir for his support in providing 30,000 lavender saplings for the establishment of the Lavender farm in Kathua.

Gupta said the lavender farm at Challah will be a source of quality planting material to farmers of adjoining Bani and Duggan blocks, besides supplying saplings to other areas of the Union Territory.

Appreciating the efforts of the agriculture department, Thakur said it is already doing excellent work in mushroom, Apiculture and off-season vegetable cultivation in areas of the Bani region.

“This lavender farm at Challa will raise the income of farmers of Bani and its adjoining areas. This will also be a famous tourist spot in the near future,” she said.