Kashmir saffron losing lustre to neglect, climate change

Pampore, Nov 1: A significant dip in saffron production has again left hundreds of farmers in south Kashmir’s Pampore distressed.

Although a good yield was expected this year due to adequate rainfall in September, the low production has come as a setback for growers who had invested heavily in land preparation and inputs.

Farmers attribute the decline to erratic weather conditions in 2024 and inadequate irrigation facilities in the traditional saffron fields of Pampore, Lethpora, and Chathlam.

“The prolonged dry spell, followed by intermittent rains and then another long wet phase in 2024, badly affected this year’s production,” said Abdul Aziz Bhat, a farmer from Lethpora.

Bhat, who has been cultivating saffron for the past four decades, said the yield had been declining steadily over the past few years, but this season’s drop seems more severe.

“It is merely 20 to 25 percent of last year’s production,” he said.

“Due to last year’s dry spell, the corms remained thin and failed to attain proper size,” Bhat said.

Many growers echo Bhat’s concern, saying that despite government claims of reviving the saffron industry, the ground situation remains grim.

The crop, once known as “Kashmir’s red gold,” is now losing its shine as both yield and acreage have declined steadily over the past decade.

IRRIGATION ISSUES

The lack of irrigation facilities continues to remain a major challenge for the cultivators.

Although the government introduced the drip irrigation system under the National Saffron Mission (NSM) decades ago, farmers say the system has neither been fully implemented nor maintained properly.

“The pipes were laid years ago, but water rarely reaches our fields,” said Ali Muhammad, a grower from Chathlam.

“While the NSM was launched with the aim of improving productivity and ensuring irrigation, poor execution has hindered its success,” said an official of the Agriculture Department, who did not wish to be named. “A comprehensive review is needed to make the irrigation network functional again.”

The official also said that many farmers uprooted the pipes laid in their farms.

However, he said that conversion of farmland for construction purposes and other crops was another factor for the dip in production.

Official data reveals a steep decline in saffron cultivation across Kashmir over the past two decades.

From an estimated 5700 hectares in late 1990s, the total area under the crop has shrunk to 3665 hectares in 2025.

The contraction is largely attributed to erratic weather, urban expansion, and the absence of a reliable irrigation network.