Lavender has given the small J&K town of Bhaderwah a national identity and also a national role in India’s growth story, said Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Sunday while inaugurating the two-day “Lavender festival 2025” organised by CSIR- IIIM at Bhaderwah in the Doda district.
Dr Jitendra Singh lauded the Agri-Startup model of Lavender farming as a transformative force that has rewritten the narrative of entrepreneurship in remote and hilly terrains.
“This single mission has answered multiple challenges,” Dr Jitendra Singh said, “It busted the myth that StartUps are limited to IT or require foreign degrees. Our youth in Jammu & Kashmir, in collaboration with CSIR-IIIM, have shown that passion, perseverance, and learning can build sustainable ventures rooted in agriculture.”
“Bhaderwah, once a quiet hilly town, is now a beacon of India’s rural startup revolution. Lavender has not just added fragrance to these mountains—it has added identity, income, and inspiration,” said Dr Jitendra Singh.
He proudly shared that young entrepreneurs in Bhaderwah are earning an average of Rs 65 lakhs annually through lavender cultivation and value-added products, motivating many others to leave conventional jobs and pursue farming as a lucrative business opportunity.
Dr Singh credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for introducing Bhaderwah and the Purple Revolution to the national stage. “When the Prime Minister dedicated nearly ten minutes in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ to talk about this Lavender mission in detail, it gave the best possible global introduction to Bhaderwah—one that we couldn’t have imagined,” he said.
The Minister emphasised that it was PM Modi’s vision of StartUp India and StandUp India, announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort, that ignited the entrepreneurial spirit in regions that previously needed long explanations to justify their existence on the developmental map.
Dr Singh revealed that there are currently 50 distillation units operational in Bhaderwah, with lavender-derived products being supplied to markets in Maharashtra and other states. The model has not only attracted attention from neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, but also from the North-Eastern states, whose representatives were present at the festival to gain first-hand insights.
“This is a new paradigm the world is witnessing – a rural, agriculture-based startup revolution that is both scalable and sustainable,” he remarked.
Another myth that Dr Jitendra Singh addressed was the misconception that start-ups are only for the young. He shared that a special exhibition featuring 60+ age group entrepreneurs will be showcased in the next edition of the festival.
Drawing a broader economic context, Dr Singh said, “India has moved from the 5th largest to the 4th largest economy, and sectors like lavender cultivation will further fuel our rise. These unexplored areas, when empowered, will become pillars of value addition and employment generation.”