📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Sukh1810
Agriculture
Uttarakhand pushes Rudraksh farming to curb hill‑state migration
✍️ The Indian Express
🗓 18 Sep 2026, 07:02 AM
👁 8
The state government has launched a scheme to promote Rudraksh cultivation, aiming to create local jobs and stem out‑migration from the hills.
Uttarakhand's administration has introduced a dedicated programme to encourage the cultivation of Rudraksh (Elaeocarpus ganitrus), a sacred seed used in Hindu worship, as a strategy to address the steady outflow of youth from the mountainous region. The scheme provides financial subsidies, technical training and market‑linkage support to farmers willing to plant the tree on marginal lands.
Pilot projects in districts such as Chamoli and Pithoragarh have already reported encouraging yields, and officials note that Rudraksh fetches premium prices in both domestic and export markets. By creating a value‑added agricultural product tied to the state's spiritual heritage, the government hopes to generate sustainable incomes and reduce dependence on seasonal migration.
The initiative forms part of a broader effort to revive traditional agro‑forestry practices, diversify hill agriculture and stem the demographic decline that has long challenged Uttarakhand's remote villages.
Pilot projects in districts such as Chamoli and Pithoragarh have already reported encouraging yields, and officials note that Rudraksh fetches premium prices in both domestic and export markets. By creating a value‑added agricultural product tied to the state's spiritual heritage, the government hopes to generate sustainable incomes and reduce dependence on seasonal migration.
The initiative forms part of a broader effort to revive traditional agro‑forestry practices, diversify hill agriculture and stem the demographic decline that has long challenged Uttarakhand's remote villages.