SKUAST-K kick starts skill training on saffron processing

Srinagar, Dec 7: Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir commenced a weeklong entrepreneurship skill development program on the processing and marketing of saffron in Pampore.

The skill training titled ‘Management of Production, Processing and Marketing of Saffron for Entrepreneurship Development’ is organised by the SKUAST-K’s Advanced Research Station for Saffron and Seed Spices (ARSSSS), SKUAST-Kashmir, Pampore under the sponsorship of the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, New Delhi.

Thirty aspiring entrepreneurs and graduate and undergraduate students are participating in the training program aimed to skill students with saffron production, post-harvesting processing and marketing of the World’s costliest spice. Various resource persons from diverse disciplines of agriculture and horticulture will train the participants.

Prof Naseer Ahmad Dar from the Directorate of Research, SKUAST-K, who was the chief guest at the inaugural function, stressed that GI-tagged Saffron produced in UT of J&K has huge demand across the world and one can easily start entrepreneurship in Niche Crops in general and Saffron in particular.

Head, ARSSSS, Prof Bashir Ahmad Alie, gave a brief account of the program and said that it is important to increase the production of saffron in the country as 80-85% of the saffron used for domestic consumption is imported from other countries which drains a huge exchequer from the country. He further added that both horizontal and vertical area expansion of saffron is the need of hour.

Program Coordinator, Dr MH Khan, highlighted the various aspects of the training program and the importance of Entrepreneurship Development in Saffron.