National Saffron Mission Has It Addressed Saffron Decline in Kashmir?

In this article, Athar Parvaiz says 12 years on, Kashmir's climate-sensitive saffron is yet to get sprinkle-irrigation under National Saffron Mission (NMS). The NMS, launched in 2010 to rejuvenate saffron cultivation in Kashmir by helping counter erratic rainfall among other challenges, is yet to ensure reliable sprinkler irrigation for saffron crop, the most basic requirement for the crop which is extremely sensitive to climatic conditions such as droughts. Irrigation plays a crucial role in saffron productivity. Farmers say that they heavily rely on natural rainfall for getting a satisfactory saffron yield.

Amid Kashmir’s red gold (saffron) cultivation facing erratic weather patterns and prolonged drought cycles owing to climate change, the saffron growers in the saffron belt of Kashmir (Pampore) say that even the much-publicized multi-billion rupees National Mission on Saffron (NMS) has not ensured a reliable sprinkle irrigation system for their saffron fields— irrigation plays a crucial role in saffron productivity.

The 4.1 billion rupees NMS, launched in 2010 to rejuvenate saffron cultivation in Kashmir is yet to ensure reliable sprinkle irrigation for saffron crop, the fundamental requirement for the crop, farmers complained. Implementing sprinkler irrigation in saffron fields, which traditionally relied on rainfall, was a key objective of this mission. The NMS was due to end in 2016 but has since been extended, though most of the works under this mission have been completed according to the officials of agriculture and irrigation departments.

Saffron farmers, who grow the “king of spices” in fields sprawling across several thousand hectares mainly in south Kashmir’s Pampore, have complained for years that lack of rainfall at crucial times has led to a decline in saffron production—adding that things are getting worse.

One or two spells of rain in September and October are vital for the crop to flower, farmers feel. “But in most years since the late 1990s, it either hasn’t rained in those months or has rained too much,” said farmer Mohammad Reshi adding that farmers still rely on how the weather behaves in the cropping season.