We The People: The Scientist Who Dreamt Of Growing Lavender In J&K

Vast fields with purple flowers, blanketed in a pleasant aroma. A narrow path beside a gushing stream takes you to lavender fields. In the rose gardens here, farmers pluck the flowers to extract rose oil. A hutment surrounded by aromatic crops is used as a farm office by scientists and research scholars. Extremely keen to develop this aromatic paradise as a knowledge and demonstration centre of production and processing for medicinal and aromatic crops is Dr Shahid Rasool, senior scientist at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu, and in-charge of its field station at Pulwama; around 35 km from Srinagar.

“Farmers, agri-entrepreneurs and research scholars visit this research centre. We have students and teachers from schools, colleges and universities visiting us to know how we work, and conduct research, development and dissemination of technologies,” he says. In one corner of the broad arable land of the field station, concrete buildings house army soldiers. The army occupied the building and the laboratory of the field station at Pulwama in 1990 when insurgency broke out in the Valley. The army used this building as the administrative complex and research facility. The army has also constructed towers for the safety and security of the camp.

Dr Shahid Rasool took over as scientist-in-charge of the CSIR field station in 2020. For the past many years, he has been on a mission to popularise lavender cultivation across Jammu and Kashmir and make the region one of the largest producers of the flower. He passionately talks about lavender and the man who brought it to the region. “If there is lavender in J&K, it is because of Dr Akhtar Hussain. He introduced lavender in Kashmir in the 1970s at this field station when no one had thought of it. Despite all odds, he made everyone believe that growing lavender in J&K could be one of the alternative crops,” Dr Rasool says.

The burgeoning lavender cultivation has given a lush purple look to fields and sloping land tracts of Jammu and Kashmir, especially in Kupwara and Budgam districts in the Valley and Bhaderwah in the Chenab Valley of Jammu. CSIR’s farm in Pulwama has become a new attraction for farmers, researchers, and agri-entrepreneurs. Dr Rasool says lavender will not only complement areas under apple orchards in the Valley but also aid farmers facing trouble cultivating rain-fed crops. “Throw lavender at any spot in Kashmir and it will grow there,” he says. “I think we are on the cusp of a purple revolution.”

In the Valley, dry conditions prevailed from March to mid-June this year with rivers and their tributaries across the region recording a drop in water levels affecting the paddy crop. The scarcity of water throughout April, May, and June, led to a drought-like situation within a larger part of south Kashmir. The most affected were people living in the higher reaches. Farmers for the past many years have been advised by the government to cultivate alternative crops under moisture-stressed conditions, and Dr Rasool says lavender, a perennial shrub belonging to the Lamiceae family, is the best alternative. Along with being an aesthetic plant, he says, it’s also an economically remunerative crop, with one kg of oil extracted from the flowers fetching above Rs 10,000. This oil is used in the flavour and fragrance industry.

For the first two years of plantation, there are no immediate returns. Dr Rasool says farmers start getting profits only after three years of production of its highly valued oil, and dry flowers. “It’s one of the best cash crops in the world, where a farmer with very little input can easily earn Rs 4-5 lakh per hectare, annually,” he adds. “The crop is pest and disease free as it is cultivated on organic protocols. After cultivation, farmers extract oil that has no fixed price. Farmers can sell one kg even for Rs 15,000.”

Dr Rasool says it is very easy to cultivate this crop as it attains a height of 2.5-3 ft at the most. “After plantation, a farmer must execute little intercultural operations for the next 15 to 18 years of crop age. In the initial stage, the juvenile plantation requires life-saving irrigation. Once the plant blooms, the flowering spikes are cut, and the plant is ready to grow again in the next season. One plant can yield several new plants every year,” he adds.

Apples and other fruit crops occupy a huge area in the Kashmir Valley. It has led to a culture of spraying pesticides across the Valley. This chemical ecology has devastated insect pollinators, particularly honey bees. The lavender crop is a wonderful fragrant source of nectar and attracts a huge population of honey bees, making it a viable source of honey production and enhancing the ecosystem of insect pollinators.

In Kashmir, CSIR cultivates and distributes the RRL-12 variety of lavender, best suited to grow in the temperate climate that witnesses snowfall. The crop is best suited for cultivation over sun-facing slopes of this region. “Each year, CSIR IIIM, through its station at Pulwama, distributes lakhs of lavender plants among farmers and growers in the Valley and in Jammu’s Doda district,” says Dr Rasool. He says that experiments are on to cultivate lavender on a large scale in the frontier district of Kupwara. “In collaboration with J&K Science, Technology & Innovation Council, we have started Project-K 5000 in Kupwara to cultivate, process and utilise lavender and other high-value aromatic crops like rose, mint, and rosemary,” he adds.

Bulgaria is currently the biggest producer of lavender and generates around 50 per cent of lavender oil—100-130 metric tons—in the world from around 3,500 hectares of farmland. Even lavender honey from its fields sells at a premium. “If we continue at this pace of cultivation and favourable climatic conditions, we can surpass the production and productivity statistics of Bulgaria,” he says. In one hectare, J&K produces 50 to 60 kg of oil whereas Bulgaria yields 200 to 250 kg. “We require high-yielding varieties,” he notes.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Kashmir’s Lavender Hues")

Liked the story? Do you or your friends have a similar story to share about 'ordinary' Indians making a difference to the community? Write to us. If your story is as compelling, we'll feature it online. Click here to submit.