Saffron: India
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Artificial cultivation
2023
Priya Kothari, June 24, 2023: The Times of India
Kashmir is famous for its saffron, the world’s most expensive spice which is notoriously tricky to grow but also to harvest because the delicate flowers have to be hand-picked. But now the farming of saffron, which is a sought-after ingredient for everything from curries to cosmetics and cocktails, is moving to controlled indoor environments in Maharashtra, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Students, aspiring entrepreneurs and even software engineers with no farming experience are trying to cultivate the ‘red gold’ as the spice is called.
Haryana-based Naveen and Praveen Sindhu, who used to cultivate Cordyceps militaris, a variety of medicinal mushrooms, have been early movers to saffron growing in a non-traditional region. “We started about three to four years ago. It is as technical as cultivating Cordyceps militaris. We do indoor farming with automated devices to control the temperature, humidity and light to grow the flower that yields saffron,” Naveen said.
With an initial investment of Rs 10 lakh, the Sindhu brothers harvested about 5kg last year. They said that 70% of their harvest is exported to the US, Dubai, Canada and Portugal.
Saffron’s fragrance and flavour are unique and it is used widely in many cuisines. The dried-orangish strands come from the purple crocus sativus plant which has two flowers, each with three stigmas.
Growing saffron and caring for it is a task. “The corms need to be constantly monitored as the weather conditions are critical. The corms or bulbs are planted in late June or early July and they bear flowers by October or early November,” says software engineer-turned-farming entrepreneur Shailesh Modak, who runs 365Dfarms in Pune. The bulbs need at least six to eight hours of sunlight and a welldrained soil that is moderately rich in organic matter.
Harvesting saffron is hard work. Each corm typically bears one or two flowers. The flowers are extremely delicate and aretraditionally plucked when they are in full bloom at sunrise to avoid wilting.
“The stigmas are hand plucked and dried, a labour-intensive process that can take many days. These stigmas are placed in trays for drying for 3-5 days until their moisture content is down to 8-10%. They are then packed and ready for dispatch,” a saffron farmer says. It takes some 200 flowers to produce one gram of saffron.
Estimates indicate that globally around 300 tons of saffron are produced every year. After Iran which contributes to 80% of production, India with 7% is the second largest grower. Spain and Greece are the other producers. Demand for the world’s costliest condiment is higher than its supply which keeps prices up. The scarcity has also encouraged a counterfeit market. Pune resident Richa Somani says earlier she was never sure if the saffron she bought was genuine. “The GI tag for the Kashmiri saffron does help guarantee quality but it is prohibitively costly. Since more people are now farming saffron now, I hope the price comes down,” she adds.
Modak says he had a successful saffron harvest in his first attempt last year with about 500kg of good quality saffron corms from Kashmir. “We were able to harvest 740g last year using soil-less farming cultivation techniques and are now working on the corm production techniques in indoor farming,” Modak adds.
While it may be relatively easy to source corms from Kashmir and grow saffron in a controlled environment, the real challenge lies in corm production, especially in indoor cultivation methods, say saffron farmers.
“We are working on technology for indoor corm production. Once developed, it will be demonstrated to entrepreneurs,” says Bashir Ahmad Allie, head of advanced research station for saffron & seed spices, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.
With the implementation of advanced farming techniques, better corm selection, nutrient management, production of saffron hit a 27-year high in 2022 in Kashmir. Statistics released by the department of agriculture in J&K said saffron production reached 16. 3 metric tons in 2022 as compared to 15 metric tons in 2021.
With saffron selling as high as Rs 500-Rs 700 per gram, indoor saffron farming is emerging as a popular choice. “We have received over 100 queries from students, and prospective entrepreneurs to learn indoor saffron cultivation. We will conduct training sessions in July and August at the university and provide kits to prospective cultivators,” says Allie.
Modak and Sindhu too have conducted training workshops for farmers and agriculture students on saffron farming. “While growing saffron may be lucrative, it requires a lot of initial investment in technology and infrastructure. Many farmers give up if the first crop fails. It requires patience and precision,” points out a saffron cultivator.
Kodaikanal
2015- 23
Dec 18, 2023: The Times of India
Saffron, a flower prized and elusive to many regions in the world, and known to thrive in India only in the foothills of the Himalayas, has found an unexpected space to flourish —Kodaikanal, a region better known for cultivation of a different purple flower, the Kurinji.
It all happened quite by accident, says R Murthy, a farmer from Kodaikanal. In 2015, the 70-year-old attended a horticulture training programme at the Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) established by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) at Srinagar in Kashmir, which aimed at spreading the cultivation of horticulture crops from the Himalayan region in other parts of the country.
While the sessions focused more on fruit trees such as apples, walnuts, peaches and berries, Murthy turned his sights on a little flower Crocus sativus, commonly known as the “saffron crocus”. “The crimson stigma and styles of this flower, called threads, are collected and dried as saffron,” says Murthy.CITH gave him 60 corms of the saffron crocus, weighing about 1kg. “Their only condition was that I should not go back to them for a fresh set of corms,” says Murthy.
He started cultivating the corms in polyhouses built 7,200 feet above sea level. “In the first round of cultivation, about 50 plants produced blossoms though the flowers were not very attractive.” In 2018, he was able to produce 46kg of corms. Then Covid hit, farming activity seized, and seed corms that remained dormant underground were damaged by rabbits and peacocks. He restarted the cultivation in 2021 and was able to produce 16kg of corms. “I’m not giving up. I want to prove saffron can be cultivated in Kodaikanal. It is a high-value crop and if farmers here can grow saffron, it will improve their livelihood.”
While Murthy is now cultivating saffron at Kavunji and Mannavanur in Kodaikanal, at Kanthalloor in Kerala, B Ramamoorthy was selected by Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Idukki, along with ICAR to carry out a trial project to see the viability of cultivating saffron in the region. This year, says the 36-year-old farmer, a 25-cent trial field produced 300 flowers from which the saffron was collected. “We had brought 200kg of corms from the Advance Saffron Research station in Srinagar and cultivated it in lab and open field conditions. But, last year there were heavy rains, and there were no flowers. This year has been better,” says Sudhakar Soundarajan, a scientist in plant production at KVK, Idukki. “We cannot say that it is a complete success yet as only the trial has been fruitful. We need to be able to cultivate ten acres of land or more to say it is a true success. We are focusing on corm production for the next two years.”
Murthy says this year’s plants have started flowering and the stigma is a deep red, which is an indicator of high quality. “Murthy’s results are encouraging,” says Professor Nazeer Ahamed, former director of CITH, who had been in office when Murthy went for training. “He has been able to successfully multiply corms which is vital in saffron cultivation. It is not a big deal to get flowers in the first year after planting corms because they will produce flowers even if planted in Chennai. The difficult part is producing corms and flowers in the subsequent years unless the climate is conducive.”
Ahamed adds that Murthy was told not to return for corms and to produce his own to see if cultivation is possible. “To cultivate saffron one needs well-draining soil in a temperate climate, where there is heavy rainfall. One mother corm produces one or two baby corms, even five depending on the fertility of the soil. Murthy has managed this.”
Murthy’s success, says Ahamed, has shown that done with care, saffron can be cultivated in Kodaikanal and Ooty, where high-value crops like garlic thrive. “Though the crop produces flowers only once a year when cultivated in large areas, it can generate returns of up to Rs 15 lakh per year. We are now trying to intercrop kalajeera (black cumin) with saffron, as both are high-value, low-volume-producing crops. It can be tried in these parts too.” Murthy’s success can be used to conduct demonstration sessions to help other farmers in Tamil Nadu cultivate saffron, he says. “A single corm produces two to three flowers with each flower having three stigmas from which the saffron is obtained. In two decades, Kashmir’s saffron cultivation has reduced from 5,000 hectares to 4,000 hectares. The national saffron mission wants to double that. They also want to encourage cultivation in other parts of the country.”
