With the completion of Rs 400 crore “Saffron Park” (Kesar Park) in Pulwama district, the Centre and the Jammu & Kashmir Government are ready to provide job opportunities to the Kashmiri youth, including stone pelters.
Equipped with hi-tech machinery for processing, drying, grading, packing and marketing of saffron, Saffron Park will have quality control lab, e-auction centre, and garbage and waste utilisation facilities.
Agriculture Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Ghulam Nabi lone told The Pioneer that works on Saffron Park has been completed. Accompanied by senior officials of agriculture production department, lone on Friday met Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, who reviewed the Saffron Park project.
During the meeting,
the Jammu & Kashmir Government requested the Centre to extend the “national mission of saffron” project by another five years so that the State Government could get more funds for development as this would help the youth join the mainstream.
Pulwama district in South Kashmir, considered one of the most prosperous districts, both in terms of intellectual capital and industrial output, remains in headlines for militancy and stone pelting.
“After this, the Jammu & Kashmir Government has also planned to open another Saffron Park in Kishtwar district, another disturbed area in South Kashmir valley. A detailed project report is being prepared to this effect,” he said.
In the Saffron Park, all marketing solutions will be provided to farmers under one roof. Kashmiri saffron has been registered as a brand (Koshur Kong). Geographic Indicator registration for Kashmiri saffron has also been taken up. The ultra-modern facility at Saffron Park laboratory is geared to meet all concerns about adulteration in collaboration with Spices Board of India.
“The quality control laboratory will issue certificate of various grades for which a certification authority will be designated by the State Government. This would significantly discourage adulteration and sale of low-grade saffron being sold in the name of Kashmir saffron,” said officials.
Kashmir is an important producer of saffron globally. In fact, India ranks third as the largest producer of saffron behind Iran and Spain.
In India, the total consumption of saffron is 40 metric tonnes. Pampore has the largest saffron cultivations anywhere in the world.
Saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world. The price of Kashmir saffron is Rs 1.8 lakh per kg in State-run outlets where as saffron imported from Iran and Spain cost around Rs 3 lakh per kg.
The area under saffron cultivation has declined from 5,707 hectare in 1996-97 to 3,785 hectare in 2014-15, bringing down the production from 3.13 kg per hectare to 1.88 kg per hectare in the last few years. The decline was mainly attributed to prevailing tension in the areas and low benefit-cost ratio due to intensive and expensive cost of cultivation as well as low productivity of saffron.
The outdated method of cultivation coupled with various biotic and abiotic stresses, poor plant stand, change in the weather pattern have been identified as the main factors responsible for the decline in crop yields. All these discouraged the farming community from pursuing saffron cultivation.
The saffron filaments or threads are actually the dried stigmas of the saffron flower. Each flower contains three stigmas. These threads must be picked from flower by hand, and more than 75,000 of these flowers are needed to produce just one pound of saffron.
“The important weather vagaries such as excessive rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind etc. influence the biological process directly or indirectly. For Instance, low soil moisture due to poor precipitation adversely affects corm multiplication resulting in reduced plant density. The poor precipitation during growth period results in stunted plant growth which ultimately affects the crop yield/ productivity,” said a senior official of Ministry of Agriculture.