‘Purple Revolution’ transforms lives: More J&K, North-East farmers turn to lavender

SRINAGAR: As ‘Aroma Mission’ or ‘Purple Revolution’ has changed the lives of thousands of farmers for better in Jammu and Kashmir and beyond, as many as four lakh plants of lavender were distributed among them at the end of an awareness-cum-training programme held in Bhaderwah, a scenic town situated in the lap of Himalayas about 184-km east of Jammu, at the weekend, officials said on Monday. Lavender or purple revolution was launched by the Union Ministry of Science & Technology through the ‘Aroma Mission’ of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in 2016 and, so far, thousands of farmers have turned to lavender cultivation in almost all the twenty districts of J&K, Ladakh and some other parts of the country. “Farmers are quite happy with farming of unconventional aromatic plants especially lavender under the ‘Aroma Mission’ for it has transformed their lives with bringing them more income,” said an official of J&K’s Floriculture Department. “The special training programme on catalysing rural empowerment through cultivation processing, value addition and marketing of aromatic plants for J&K and North-Eastern region was held under CSIR’s Aroma Mission phase II,” said an official.