By So far, the cultivation of saffron – the foremost dearly-won spice – in the Asian country has been restricted to some areas in Jammu and geographical area. The Ministry of Science and Technology, through the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is currently observing extending its cultivation to some states within the Northeast.
A run has yielded made leads to Yangyang village of South geographical region, that created its initial crop of saffron this September. it had been big across onethousand,sqaure. metres. Once the standard of the saffron is assessed, this may be scaled up 10 times in geographical region itself, aforementioned Dr Arun K Sarma, Director General, North East Centre For Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR), and autonomous body below the DST that enforced the project.
Saffron cultivation has long been restricted to a restricted geographic region in J&K, in the main Pampore, followed by Budgam, Srinagar and Kishtwar districts.
India cultivates regarding vi to seven MT of saffron annually, however, to satisfy the one hundred MT demand, saffron is foreign. A kg of saffron big here prices anyplace between Rs 1.5 to Rs a pair of hundred thousand.
The idea cropped up throughout an informal discussion among NECTAR scientists some months agone and shortly when they began reconnoitring for saffron growers in J&K.
The biology and farming departments of the geographical region Central University, that collaborated on the project, tested the soil pH scale in Yangyang and located it almost like the saffron-growing areas of geographical area, particularly Pampore.
“With no previous expertise in growing saffron, we tend to want to facilitate and appointed a Pampore-based farmer for this task. Seeds were specially procured from Pampore; sowing and alternative schedules, like those undertaken in the geographical area, were followed throughout September and Oct,” Krishna Kumar, an individual at NECTAR, told The Indian specific.
“Saffron has to stay underground for regarding forty-five days at sub-zero temperatures. It conjointly needs adequate rain, particularly once planted in August,” aforementioned saffron cultivator Abdul Majeed Wani, president of the Saffron Growers Association from Pampore, J&K.
“Saffron seed/ corms were purchased and air-transported from geographical area to Yangyang by the department. One saffron sodbuster was engaged and stationed to seem when the whole growing method, alongside the school of the university,” the DST aforementioned during a statement.
The corms were irrigated throughout September and Oct, that ensured timely ontogenesis and smart flower yields, it said.
“The initial harvest obtained from the ab initio cultivated one kanal land has been smart. it’s presently undergoing the post-harvest process,” Kumar aforementioned, adding that it’d be too early to inquire into the standard of saffron.
“The pH scale level of the soil was a very necessary issue. Our geographical area saffron farmer concerned within the project has found that the flower looks to be precisely the same as that big in Kashmir, with similar properties like the thickness etc. still, we tend to square measure ending a scientific analysis of the plant to examine however it compares to the saffron plant in Kashmir…,’’ aforementioned Sarma.
“We also are observing extending the cultivation of saffron to Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, wherever we tend to feel that the conditions square measure favourably,’’ he said.
