A city dweller Shaheen Shadaab owns land in Pulwama district where she has an orchard of lavenders. In 2013 she thought she should do something useful with the land space. She thought of growing trees and then she was drawn to lavender, scientific name Lavandula spica. She prepared the land for growing the aromatic bush cultivation crop, lavender, and in 2014 she did the plantation. From then on, she has been cultivating the lavender blossoms. Working as a labour in her lavender farm, Nisar Ahmad from Pulwama says, this time he has sown plants like lavender and rosemary, which are used in making Ayurvedic medicinal preparations. These plants are later sold in the market.
Shahid Rasool, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Incharge, Bonera Farm says, after harvesting, the purple lavender flowers go through a process of hydro steam distillation. Then we obtain the lavender oil. The essential oil industry and the fragrance industry then buys the oil from us. Growing lavenders is proving beneficial for our farmers too as well as for fragrance flavour and aroma therapy industry. Lavender is used in perfumes too.
We are getting demand from other states too and the staff workers are keen to learn about the technology, get the planting material, and technical know-how to grow lavender plants. These plants are ideal to grow in the weather conditions of Kashmir, says CSIR Incharge Rasool. Baseer-ul Haq, DC Pulwama says, the Lavender parks are growing over a land of around 1600 kanals in Pulwama. Lavender is produced here and it has a lot of potential. Lavender oil extraction is done, which goes to different industries. In the coming future, lavender commercial crop farming to getting the oil will be done and completed on time.
– News Desk, Kashmir Ahead