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CSIR Aroma Mission Phase-III launched

On 4th June, 2023 CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu launched the third phase of CSIR-Aroma Mission during the Lavender Festival conducted at Bhaderwah of Jammu & Kashmir, UT. The festival was part of the institution’s ‘One Week One Lab Campaign’. Minister of State (I/C) Science and Technology, MoS in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh was the chief guest on the occasion and has inaugurated the two-day event in Bhaderwah. The event showcased the remarkable progress made in lavender cultivation and its impact on the local community. Dr. Singh mentioned Bhaderwah as the origin of India’s purple revolution, highlighting the region’s success in promoting lavender cultivation and nurturing agri-startups. Other prominent attendees in the event included senior CSIR-IIIM officials, scientists, industrialists, progressive farmers and agriculture and horticulture officials from across the country.

Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu Dr. Zabeer Ahmed in his address highlighted the contribution of  CSIR-IIIM in development of aromatic crops varieties and aroma based products which has positively impacted the living of people in the region. Dr. Zabeer mentioned that the two phases of this mission project were completed successfully and has brought a transformative change in the rural economy, market dynamics and growth opportunities in the aroma sector. He informed that in the Phase-III of Aroma Mission, the focus would be to establish clusters where end-to-end solutions would be provided to farmers for value addition, product development which would have great impact on inclusive economic development of the farmers of the region and the promotion of the agri-tech startup ecosystem.

Dr. Dhiraj Vyas, Senior Principal Scientist and Head of Plant Sciences welcomed the guests and gave brief introduction of this programme. Nodal Scientist, Aroma Mission informed that in the third Phase of Aroma Mission CSIR-IIIM, Jammu aims to further focus on development of value addition products.

“Catalyzing rural empowerment through Cultivation, Processing, Value addition and Marketing of Aromatic Plants”

The CSIR Aroma Mission is envisaged to bring transformative change in the aroma sector through desired interventions in the areas of agriculture, processing and product development for fuelling the growth of aroma industry and rural employment. The mission will promote the cultivation of aromatic crops for essential oils that are in great demand by aroma industry. It is expected to enable Indian farmers and aroma industry to become global leaders in the production and export of some other essential oils on the pattern of menthol mint. This is expected to provide substantial benefits to the farmers in achieving higher profits, utilization of waste lands and protection of their crops from wild and grazing animals.

Under the third phase an area of 2400 hectares will be brought under cultivation for these crops by interventions of CSIR to further catalyze cultivation of aromatic crops in about 60,000 hectares. Moreover, about 200 training/ awareness programmes will be conducted during the tenure of Aroma Mission phase III. An additional 700 tonnes of essential oil is expected to be produced annually for perfumery, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, and use of these oils in value addition and herbal products would generate a business of at least 200 crores.

The activities of the Mission will improve availability of quality material on sustainable basis for a boom in the herbal industry based on essential oils.

The scientific interventions made under the mission project would provide assured benefits to the growers of Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Gujarat, Marathwada, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and other states where farmers are exposed to frequent episodes of weather extremes and account for maximum suicides.

The mission will put a mechanism in place for timely agro-advisory, ensuring optimal productivity and fair price of the produce to the farmers and reducing the import of essential oils and enabling India to become leading exporter of at least some essential oils.

This Mission aims to achieve following outcomes

  • Bring about 2400 ha of additional area under captive cultivation aromatic cash crops particularly targeting rain-fed /degraded land across the country
  • Provide technical and infrastructural support for distillation and values-addition to farmers/growers all over the country
  • Enabling effective buy-back mechanisms to assure remunerative prices to the farmers/growers
  • Value-addition to essential oils and aroma ingredients for their integration in global trade and economy