Industry
Why Kashmir’s saffron growers are feeling blue
Summary
- Climate change is wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of saffron growers and other farmers in the union territory. Known to some as the ‘king of spices’, its area under cultivation has shrunk
Pampore: Mohammad Ashraf Khan, a farmer, has been cultivating saffron in Lethpora, Pampore, for the last four decades. Last year, however, he could not harvest his crop until November. “The saffron harvest season starts in October but till the first week of November I had no yield. In the last week of the season I was able to harvest about 50% of the normal produce," the 50-year-old laments. “The highlands, mostly visible on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway near Pampore, have become a desert."
Another farmer, Abdul Gani Reshi, 55, who cultivates saffron on an acre and a half of land, tells Mint that during the first half of the season he managed to harvest just 12 gm of saffron.
“Three decades back, we would get around 2 kg of produce in a day, and during the whole season, the yield was more than a quintal," says Khan. With the saffron industry in the doldrums, his family is considering switching to other crops.
Khan, Reshi and other farmers blame climate change and the lack of irrigation facilities for hindering the growth of saffron, which is used in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and perfumery industries. Known to some as the ‘king of spices’, saffron is an expensive buy—the Kashmiri variety is sold at ₹2,000 to ₹2,200 per 10 gm. The overall industry, however, is small, and in the region of ₹300 crore, as saffron is not a crop with a huge output.
Reshi says that the saffron, which is known for its aroma and colour, requires intermittent rains between mid August and mid September for a good flush of flowers during the harvest season. Last year, however, the prolonged dry spell delayed the harvest. Saffron was cultivated on 5,707 hectares of land in 1997-98, as per government data. That had shrunk to around 3,715 hectares till 2021-22.
Aside from climate change, farmers and officials at the helm of affairs blame conventional farming, a poor and mismanaged market, adulteration, imports of the cheaper Iranian variety, and lack of interest in farming for the considerable loss of land under saffron cultivation, posing a threat to the future of the cash crop.
Apple and cherry
But it is not just saffron that has been affected by the erratic weather. Other crops such as apples, cherry, plum and strawberries, have also been affected. Apple is a key crop. Kashmir exports around 18 lakh tons of apples annually and produces 75% of India’s total apple production. The apple industry in Jammu and Kashmir is seen as the largest employment generator of the union territory, employing 3.5 million people, and contributing 9.5% to its gross state domestic product (GSDP).
Apples, like saffron, require a good amount of precipitation and snow during winter. Adnan Ali, an apple farmer based in Shopian, Kashmir’s apple town, tells Mint that most apple varieties require 800-1,000 hours of temperatures below 7°C to flower and bear fruit. Snow helps temperatures fall and stay low.
This winter, however, due to the extended dry spell, growers in Kashmir are staring at an uncertain future. Kashmir did not receive any rain or snow from 1 December last year until 1 February this year. “The snowless winter can spell doom for apple crops if adequate precipitation is not received in upcoming months. The dry spell in winter can cause water scarcity due to which irrigation facilities may also be inadequate," says Ali. This year, growers may need to irrigate their apple orchards early to ensure some level of output and quality, failing which both will be severely affected, he says.
Both apple growers as well as scientists say the dry weather, coupled with the warmer temperatures in January—the peak of winter in Kashmir—can lead to an early spring and abnormal flowering, which can cause a reduction in output. “The record-breaking dry spell can significantly affect the yield and quality of apples. The snow or rain during the winter leads to a moisture buildup in the soil, which is important for the health of apple trees and the quality of fruits," explains Tariq Khan, an apple grower in Rajpora village of Pulwama district.
Tariq Rasool, a senior scientist at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, is hopeful the situation will improve. “The dry weather has a strong tendency to hit the quality of apples but if adequate precipitation is received in February, March and April, then the crop quality may not get hit. We now require good irrigation and significant precipitation in the spring season for the growth and development of apples," says Rasool.
Mercury rising
“The lack of snow this winter can be attributed to a decline in western disturbance events, El Nino (a climatic phenomenon characterized by the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean), and climate change," Mukhtar Ahmad, director, meteorological department—Kashmir, says.
As Mint noted last month in a piece on climate change’s impact on tourism in the Himalayan region, every year, rain-bearing western disturbances between November and March result in heavy snow in the upper reaches and rainfall in the lower regions of the region. A western disturbance is an extratropical storm that originates from the Mediterranean region, gains moisture-laden warm air from the Arabian Sea and flows northward to mix with cold air coming down from the North pole to bring rain, hail and snow to the north-west Himalayan range.
This weather system is critical for agriculture, tourism and for the replenishment of the glaciers and lakes that provide water later in the summer months. This year, however, the western disturbances have been fewer and weaker, and the winter has barely seen any rain or snow. The experts blame this shift on climate change. And its impact is affecting livelihoods in the region, especially those who depend on farming.
Indeed, climate change has become a big topic of discussion in Kashmir for the past few years, with the Valley witnessing extreme weather events. The temperatures tell the story. For example, on 28 February 2016, Kashmir recorded the hottest February in 76 years with the temperature touching 20.06°C. Four years later, on 17 August 2020, it recorded the hottest August in 39 years with a temperature of 35.07°C. Similarly, on 18 July 2021, Kashmir again recorded the hottest July in eight years with the temperature at 35°C. The Valley also recorded a record-breaking drop in temperatures on 30 January 2021, which was the coldest night in 30 years. Last year, Srinagar recorded the warmest March in 131 years, with the mean minimum temperature at 6.7°C, which was the highest ever since at least 1892.
On 12 September last year, Srinagar recorded its second hottest September day in 132 years. The city, situated only 5.9 kilometres from Pampore, recorded a temperature of 34.2°C (6°C above normal), which was second only to the all-time high of 35°C on 18 September 1934.
This winter was so bad that Kashmir, on certain days, was warmer than Jammu, New Delhi, Lucknow and other cities. For instance, on 9 January, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 13.4°C and Srinagar recorded a maximum temperature of 14.2°C.
According to Faizan Arif, a Kashmir-based independent weather forecaster, Srinagar received 244 millimetres (mm) of snowfall and rain in December 1990. This fell to 20.9 mm in December 2021 and 6.9 mm in December 2022.
Farmers switch
The production of saffron has been constantly declining in Kashmir, and the table land where saffron (crocus sativus) grows has also been shrinking. According to the data provided by the department of agriculture, Kashmir, saffron production through traditional farming has declined from 16 metric tonnes (mt) in 1997-98 to just 3.5 mt in 2021-22.
The dwindling production has hit the income of farmers, who are now thinking of using their saffron land for the cultivation of apples, walnuts or other exotic varieties. A number of farmers in Pampore, where more than 30,000 families are associated with saffron farming, have already switched to other crops. Khan from Lethpora tells Mint that due to regular losses he has started to grow apples and plums on 30% of his saffron land.
“I have lost hope in saffron because it is only yielding peanuts. Gone are the days when saffron land was like a goldmine and farmers were getting handsome returns from its cultivation."
The chairman of All Jammu and Kashmir Saffron Growers Development Cooperative Marketing Association, Abdul Majeed Wani, admits that farmers in Pampore are now switching to other crops. “The deserted look of saffron fields is nothing but nature’s fury. Climate change has wreaked havoc on the saffron industry. Either it has not rained during the critical period or it has rained too much. The rise in the temperatures has also impacted saffron corms as well as the overall crop, leaving farmers in losses," he says.
Mounting challenges ahead
Reshi says that due to repeated setbacks to the saffron industry, the new generation is not interested in carrying forward saffron cultivation in the Valley. “Farmers work in the scorching heat and spend money, time and energy throughout the year to get a pittance eventually. The cost of fertilizers, labourers and other farming equipment is more than what they ultimately earn from the produce."
The lack of interest from the younger generation towards the crop has also led to labour shortages, while raising expenses through the year. For example, in the absence of manpower, farmers remained heavily dependent on non-local labourers to plough or remove weeds in the fields.
Altaf Aijaz Andrabi, former agriculture director, Kashmir, admits that since non-local labourers, who are mostly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, are unaware of the cultivation of saffron and its sensitive nature, they often cause injuries to corms, affecting the quality of the crop.
On their part, the authorities have been trying to boost the saffron industry. In order to combat the challenges of adulteration, misbranding and imports of cheaper Iranian variety, the saffron grown in Kashmir received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2020. A GI tag identifies a product as originating from a particular territory, and having a given quality, reputation or characteristic attributable to that geographic origin. Despite this, the industry continues to struggle.
Again, in order to mitigate the water crisis and provide farmers irrigation facilities, in 2010, the union government introduced the National Saffron Mission (NSM). Government data indicates that the mission has had a positive impact, to the tune of ₹400 crore, on Kashmir’s saffron industry. Official figures indicate production has increased from 1.4895 mt in 2011 to 13.6434375 mt in 2021-22. The government data also reveal that productivity under NSM has increased from 4.5 kg per hectare to 5.25 kg per hectare in 2021-22.
However, farmers on the ground have rejected the data and the claims made by the agriculture department, saying that NSM is nothing but “hogwash" and that this is evident on Kashmir’s saffron fields, which are littered with sprinklers, borewell equipment and broken pipes. Clearly, Kashmir’s farmers have a lot on their plate at the moment.
