Agriculture continues to be the most predominant sector of the State economy, as 70 percent of the population is engaged in Agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood. In the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, farmers generally face two issues — salinity of water and lack of water source for irrigation. These problems were addressed under the aroma mission where both drought- and flood- tolerant crops like palmarosa and vetiver were introduced in an area of 45 hectares. Cuddalore is a cyclone and tsunami affected area where farm lands are submerged with sea water for about 1-2 months. Flood and salinity tolerant, high-yielding variety of vetiver was introduced in this region which is being cultivated in an area of 12 hectares providing almost 3-4 folds increase in the essential oil yields compared to the poor yielding prevalent variety. This year, the area under cultivation of vetiver would be around 200 hectares which may yield 3 tonnes of vetiver oil worth Rs. 6 crores. On the other hand, the farmers of Tiruvannamalai, dependent on rain-fed agriculture, were apprised of the cultivation of palmarosa through 3 training programmes which were attended by 375 farmers. About 150 kg of palmarosa seeds of a high-yielding variety were provided to the farmers. This crop, at present, covers an area of 33 hectares. It is also proposed, under the mission programme, to revive the cultivation of geranium in the Nilgiri and Palni hills of Tamil Nadu by introducing high-yielding varieties and improved processing units.