![Farmers checking the saffron flowers on their farm in Pampore, Kashmir. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2024/02/Farmers-checking-the-saffron-flowers-in-their-farm-in-Pampore-Kashmir___Photo-by-Athar-Parvaiz__IPS-629x472.jpg)
SRINAGAR, India, Feb 07 (IPS) – Saffron, the costly spice from the Kashmir Himalayas, has been going through challenges for years, principally associated to yields and insufficient irrigation compounded by the local weather disaster.
Whereas the federal government launched the 4.1 billion rupee National Saffron Mission (NMS) in 2010 to mitigate these challenges and rejuvenate saffron cultivation in Kashmir, its efficacy stays questionable, farmers say.
Saffron is certainly one of Kashmir’s main industries, together with horticulture and agriculture, supporting some 17,000 families within the area. India contributes 5% of the world’s whole manufacturing, of which 90% is supplied from the Kashmir Himalayan area.
The spice has been cultivated since 500 AD within the Kashmir valley and reached its peak within the Nineties at an annual common yield of round 15.5 tonnes from 5,700 hectares (14,085 acres), however each the land farmed for saffron and yields have declined since then.
In line with a study, extended durations of drought have triggered important issues amongst saffron farmers.
“Because the crop closely depends on rainfall, inadequate precipitation has resulted within the area experiencing its lowest saffron productiveness up to now three a long time,” the research says.
“Along with the challenges posed by drought, the area can be going through points associated to urbanization and rising inhabitants progress,” the research additional says. In line with Kashmir’s agriculture department, saffron land has decreased from 5,700 hectares within the Nineties to three,715 hectares in 2016 because of land-use conversions.
Saffron farmers, who develop the “king of spices” in fields sprawling throughout a number of thousand hectares, primarily in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, have been complaining for years that lack of rainfall at essential occasions has led to a decline in saffron manufacturing.
One or two spells of rain in September and October are very important for the crop to flower, farmers say. However in most years for the reason that late Nineties, it both hasn’t rained in these months or has rained an excessive amount of, damaging the crop, says farmer Mohammad Reshi, including that farmers nonetheless depend on the climate within the cropping season.
“The sprinkle irrigation system, which the federal government claims has been put in place, ought to have been purposeful by now. However it isn’t working. You possibly can see for your self what has occurred to those pipes and the bore wells. They aren’t serving any objective,” Reshi tells IPS whereas pointing on the defunct sprinkle irrigation system in a saffron discipline in Pampore, the place saffron cultivation is concentrated in Kashmir.
Although, Reshi says, tube wells have been dug and pipes have been laid in saffron fields for years now, “we’re but to see the water in saffron fields.”
In line with him, the venture was speculated to be accomplished years in the past, however it nonetheless lingers. Denying the allegations of saffron farmers, Ghulam Mohammad Dhobi, Joint Director of Kashmir’s agriculture division, who can be the Nodal Officer for NMS, says that the federal government is attempting its finest to assist the farmers get good yields.
“The farmers have to not anticipate lengthy to see the optimistic outcomes of the irrigation infrastructure, as we expect its completion quickly after it can operate correctly,” Dhobi tells IPS.
In line with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which has given saffron cultivation in Kashmir a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) standing, “saffron cultivation has been going through extreme challenges of sustainability and livelihood safety, with an pressing must undertake applicable applied sciences to deal with water shortage, productiveness loss, and market volatility.”
Scientific analysis has established that irrigation performs an important function in saffron cultivation in Kashmir. Firdous Nahvi, a former agriculture scientist at Sher-e-Kashmir College of Agricultural Sciences and Know-how, says that saffron yields have historically relied on rainfall within the essential months from August to October in Kashmir, and saffron yields have fallen lately due to the irrigation drawback.
In line with Nahvi, till 1999-2000, Kashmir obtained well-distributed precipitation of 1,000 to 1,200 mm per yr within the type of rain and snow, however that has now decreased to 600 to 800 mm.
“In any a part of the world, farming is unthinkable with out water,” Nahvi says and provides: “Creating irrigation amenities was the vital a part of the venture as a result of we’ve got noticed lately that it does not rain when the crop wants the moisture.” Nahvi was the knowledgeable who suggested the NMS implementers concerning the want for putting in the sprinkle irrigation system for saffron cultivation in Kashmir.
Options in Farming Strategies
Bashir Allie, an agricultural scientist who heads Kashmir’s Saffron Analysis Station, says that he has additionally suggested the agriculture and irrigation departments of the Kashmir authorities that creating drip irrigation amenities is essential for bettering saffron yields.
“However we’re additionally working with farmers via our discipline consciousness program to boost saffron yield,” Allie tells IPS, including that he and his staff are telling the farmers to plant the optimum variety of corms within the saffron fields quite than planting them haphazardly.
For instance, Allie says, the farmers principally plant as much as 300,000 corms per hectare, “whereas we advise them to go for 500,000 to at least one million corms per hectare (or 50 corms per sq. meter).” This, he says, will assist the farmers enhance their yields, supplied they uproot the outdated corms each 4 years and plant new corms.
“What we’ve got additionally noticed is that the farmers hold the corms within the fields for as much as 20 years and depart them unattended,” he tells IPS, including that this impacts the yield because the older corms hold producing new corms, which will increase the competitors for vitamins inside the inhabitants and all the inhabitants underperforms (in producing flowers), thus affecting the yield.
“So, the answer we’re providing to the farmers is to plant the optimum variety of corms (50 corms per sq. meter) and exchange the corms after each 4 years,” Allie informs.
To mitigate the affect of drought circumstances on saffron crops, Allie says that he and his staff have suggested the farmers to begin rising almond timber in saffron fields at a distance of 4 to 5 meters in order that they supply shade and assist the farmers retain moisture of their saffron fields.
“As soon as the almond timber produce branches, they are going to present shade to saffron fields, as saffron is a shade-loving plant. Additionally, the moisture within the soil might be retained,” Allie says, including that the almond timber, in addition to offering shade, can even produce almonds, thereby serving to the farmers enhance their revenue.
IPS UN Bureau Report
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