Mir Iqbal
Srinagar, Oct 28: The National Saffron Mission (NSM) to increase the saffron production in Kashmir valley has failed miserably as production of the cash crop has drastically declined by 50 percent.
Farmers in Pampore belt which is known as saffron bowl, say that under the NSM scheme, saffron corns were distributed among its growers to increase the production from 2.5 kilograms to 5 kilograms per hector, but the applied scientific methods under NSM failed to rejuvenate this cash crop.
Under the supervision of agriculture experts and scientists from Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences, Shalimar (SKUAST), the growers replaced corns spread on more than 1,337 hectors of saffron land for the last two years to get better yields.
“The corns failed to produce better yield. We used to replace corns after 12-15 years by ploughing the land. But the SKUAST experts told us to replace them manually after 5 years instead of ploughing,” said Bilal Arizoo, a saffron grower of Pampore.
Arzoo said their production declined by about 50 percent this year after they used the methods as per the scheme, adding, the villages of Sambora, Chandara and Konibal were the worst hit this year.
Tariq Ahmad, a farmer-cum-dealer from Lethpora, said 5 years were not enough to expect bumper flowering of corn as it takes three years for a newly planted corn to blossom. “The production was severally hit because the life span of the corn has been reduced to 5 years,” Ahmad said.
The farmers added that the changes were visible in the fields, as in this period of the season the farmers would pluck at least 50 per cent of the flowers, but due to adoption of NSM scheme only 10 per cent of flowers have been plucked so far this season.
They said even on experimenting site in Dusoo village which the experts used for testing the corn, only some flowers have sprouted which indicated the scheme has failed to yield desired results.
Besides the scheme’s failure, the farmers also blamed the ongoing widening of the Highway in through the middle of the saffron bowl at Lethpora for decline in crop production.
“The dust blown due to the earth filling of the road construction and heavy movement of vehicles like Tippers has polluted the environment around the fields which too affected its production and quality,” the farmers said.
Chief Agriculture Officer, Pulwama, Ghulam Hassan Guru, admitted the scheme has failed to boost the saffron production, adding, the weather also played a spoilsport.
“The plantation has declined on 1,337 hectors of land in the district Pulwama, but it might take some 2-3 years for a corn to produce a good quantity of flowers. Flowers are temperature sensitive, if the temperature remains good, then flowers will come out as there is still a week left to pluck flowers,” he said.
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