Lavender harvest at Bonera village in Pulwama outskirts presents the feel of a festival. Many women from different areas of this southern district collect the purple blossoms from a huge patch of land falling under the Field Station of CSIR ( Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) IIIM (India Institute of Integrative Medicine).
Their giggles add to the attraction of this place which has a distinct ambivalence and aura.
The air around is filled with the pleasing fragrance of various aromatic, medicinal and ornamental plants like Carnation, Rose, Scented Geranium, Clarysage, Artemisia, and Rosemary which are grown on the farm.
Seerat Jan is one of the girls working on this field station as a seasonal worker. She has been here for the past couple of years. Her neighbour, a member of a self help group ( SHG), introduced Seerat to this place.
She found the physical ambiance and conducive atmosphere so appealing that she brought in two younger sisters to work on the farm.
The three of them earn a decent amount.
“This is a good place for women to work, we earn a sufficient amount with which we manage our daily needs and also support our parents,” Seerat said.
Many girls like Seerat and her sisters derive their livelihood from this field station, which is the largest such farm in North India spread on more than 200 acres of land.
Nasreena, another woman working on the farm, appreciated concerned officials for encouraging and supporting female folk.
She narrated that they earn a dignified livelihood from the place because of which a number of girls prefer working at the farm.
Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Basharat Qayoom, during his recent visit to the field station commended it for women empowerment through Lavender cultivation.
The station has emerged as the largest employer for female folk in the vicinity.
As per an estimate the farm generates around 30,000 mandays in a year.
The officials at the station said that they have special focus on women empowerment having trained more than 200 girls.
“Many women have been trained for Lavender and Rose cultivation, processing and value addition,” they said, adding that most of the trained women have established their own units.
Rising Kashmir talked to one such woman entrepreneur, Parveena, from Chandgam village of Pulwama.
Member of a self help group (SHG) under NRLM (National Rural Livelihood Mission) she was trained in Lavender cultivation, processing and value addition at the Bonera station along with other women.
Parveena said that at the beginning there were only 10 women in their SHG but now they added 15 more members.
They cultivate the signature crop of Lavender on around 10 Kanals of land which will take some time to mature fully.
District Manager, NRLM, Pulwama, Arshid Ahmad, told Rising Kashmir that the group was provided with 6600 Lavender saplings by field station of CSIR IIIM Bonera under aroma mission.
At this time they group through their unit, Pulwama Lavenders, is extracting the essential oil using a facility of Bonera farm.
After proper packaging they market the Lavender oil.
“We sell our product locally and are also available on various online platforms like Flipkart, Mesho and Amazon,” Parveena said, adding that they also sell their product through UMEED haat.
A year ago the group was awarded by the government during an impressive function at Jammu for doing good work.
Parveena, a postgraduate in rural development with a diploma in urban planning, said that they are mulling to form an FPO ( Farmer Producer Organisation) for scaling up their Lavender oil business.
She said that earlier people here were having less information about Lavender crop and the essential oil derived from it.
She said that they did a lot of leg work in its promotion which resulted in getting frequent orders from people.
District Manager, NRLM, Pulwama, Arshid Ahmad said that SHG members from Newa, Arihal and Lassipora also started cultivation and distillation of lavender oil under aroma mission of CSIR.
He added 125 SHG members across the district were provided training on Lavender cultivation, processing and value addition under LEDP (Livelihood and Enterprise Development Programme) of NABARD (National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development) during this year.
Experts believe that Lavender cultivation appeals to women as they find it comparatively comfortable to grow and take care of this aromatic bush with purple blossoms.
Lavender, a perennial crop, is cultivated for obtaining Lavender oil, Lavender water, dried Lavender flowers and hydrosol for development of value added finished products like high end cosmetics, fine fragrances, beauty and body care products, therapeutics, food and flavouring agents and varied products of industrial uses.
Lavender oil is also used in aromatherapy; it promotes relaxation and is believed to treat anxiety, fungal infections, allergies, depression, insomnia, eczema, nausea and menstrual cramps.
A researcher working on the field station in Bonera said that one kilogram of Lavender oil sells for 10,000 rupees in the market.
He narrated that the agrarian situation in Kashmir is evolving and there is a lot of scope for cultivation of such crops keeping in view the high demand for the essential oils in the production of high end perfumes, cosmetics, fragrance and allied industries.
He said that protocols for Lavender have been standardized at the station for its production, processing and post harvest technology and now there is a growing acceptance for its adoption.