Suhail Bhat
Anantnag, June 23: In a major milestone for Kashmir’s aromatic crop sector, the region’s fragrant lavender is set to make its debut in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, as the Agriculture Department dispatches its first-ever consignment of the purple blooms outside the Valley.
The historic export is being carried out from a sprawling lavender farm in Sirhama, a remote village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, managed by the Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Department.
Spread across 640 kanals, the farm has so far brought 200 kanals under lavender cultivation. “For the first time, lavender from Kashmir is being sent outside the Union Territory. We have received an order from Dehradun and are currently harvesting to meet the demand,” Shabir Ahmad, the farm in charge, said. He added that earlier, the lavender was sent to Srinagar for distillation. “Now, fresh lavender will be exported directly.”
On Monday, around 30 workers began harvesting at 6:30 a.m., carefully cutting the aromatic stems-each 12 to 15 inches long. Their faces reflected pride as their work finally reached markets beyond Kashmir. “We have received a demand for five quintals of dried flowers, and the harvest is being carried out specifically for that,” Kamal Bhat, a research assistant at the farm, said.
Despite lower-than-usual rainfall this season, Bhat said the crop has performed well. “The expected yield is around 40 to 50 quintals,” he said. He added that lavender’s therapeutic and medicinal properties make it highly valuable in the wellness industry.
To support processing locally, the department installed a distillation unit under the Holistic Agriculture Development Program (HADP). “Now, whatever quality of lavender we produce can be processed right here,” Shabir Ahmad said.
The farm is also preparing for expansion, with five lakh new lavender plants currently in the nursery stage. “These will be ready by the end of this year and planted in the next season,” Ahmad added.
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