Innovative indoor Saffron farming.

To overcome challenges in Saffron farming coupled with failed irrigation systems and conversion of land use for construction purposes, farmers are taking innovative recourse to go for indoor saffron farming on vertical structure.
A seasoned farmer from a village in Pampore town in South Kashmir, knows the art of preserving saffron corms (saffron bulbs). He is saving them for his next cycle of indoor saffron farming. The delicate saffron bulbs give rise to the fall-flowering purple Crocus sativus, which yields the world’s most expensive spice, saffron, known as “red gold” for its value.
With traditional saffron farming facing challenges like erratic weather , low yields, faulty irrigation and conversion of land use,the concept of innovative indoor farming for saffron is catching up in Kashmir.
Indoor cultivation techniques offer higher productivity, reduced labour and control over environmental conditions, presenting a viable solution to revive saffron farming in Kashmir. Our innovative professionals from SKUAST-K may guide our farmers as how to carry this experimental indoor farming to successful conclusion.
Unlike many crops that propagate through seeds, saffron, locally known as koung reproduces via corms, requiring careful management for continuity. Saffron farmers plant the smaller (less than six grams) corms, and these multiply inside the soil, leading to the production of more corms, including bigger ones that are eventually used for saffron production. Saffron cultivation demands specific conditions, such as controlled climates and precise timing for harvest.
Many saffron farmers with 40 years of experience in traditional saffron farming, have started practicing indoor cultivation since 2021 and are happy to continue with it. They have been able to produce a good yield in a small room with a controlled environment, without worrying about irregular weather and water shortages that are challenges when growing the crop in fields.
However, saffron production in Kashmir has dropped significantly, with a 68% decline over the past two decades. Data from the Agricultural Department shows that the area under saffron cultivation decreased from 5,707 hectares in 1996-97 to 2,387.71 hectares in 2018-19. Similarly, the production of saffron has fallen from 15.95 metric tonnes in the 1990s to just 2.6 metric tonnes in 2023-24.
Saffron was once widely cultivated in the Pulwama district, but various factors, including low yields and increased urbanization and national highways expansion around saffron fields have prompted farmers to switch to higher-yielding crops.
To address these challenges, SKUAST-Kashmir introduced the concept of indoor saffron farming in 2018, aiming to boost productivity and improve saffron quality using scientific methods. Indoor farming reduces water and chemical usage, offers better control over environmental conditions, and requires less labour. Funded by NABARD, this three-year project (2021 to 2024) has a budget of Rs. 6.0-6.2 lakhs, covering planting material and equipment for five demonstration trials.
This indoor approach begins with corms placed in trays installed in vertical multi-tier racks in an aeroponic system. The room is kept dark for about 90 to 100 days to promote the physiological changes needed for sprouting and flowering, achieved by covering windows with black cloth or cardboard. After the 100-day mark, lighting is turned on to stimulate flower opening.
Harvesting from indoor setups takes place from October to November 10th. Afterward, the corms are moved to open field soil for a chilling phase, following an ultr—high-density module with no gaps between them. “The corms need about 1,100 hours of chilling to ensure they multiply and remain viable for the next year’s crop.
when innovative and progressive Saffron farmers were educated about technological changes in saffron farming they decided to give it a try They approached the saffron station at Pampore and were given an On-Farm Trial (OFT), along with some trays and racks. They started in 2023 with one quintal of saffron corms placed in 128 trays within a 10ft x 10ft room and got a yield of 28 grams of saffron, while traditionally cultivating one quintal across .250 acre (two kanals) yielded more than 150 grams in the same year.
A farmer could begin with 30 to 40 kg of saffron corms when adopting this indoor model, though it’s still in the experimental stage. “Post-harvest, the corms must be sown back in the soil in the field to undergo the necessary cold shock for multiplication.
There is a need for technology that allows corm multiplication indoors so that this experiment becomes a reality to enhance saffron cultivation.
Regarding concerns about lower income from indoor farming, the president of the Saffron Growers Association, Abdul Majid Wani, stated that indoor cultivation has not yet reached its full potential, as it remains in its experimental phase. However, he noted that with technological advancements they may over come limitations and adopt this farming in a big way.
CEO of Farmers Producers Company, Pampore, explained that indoor saffron farming technology is temperature-resilient, reducing the risk of crop failure. However, the main difficulty lies in corm growth, a critical component in saffron cultivation.
“While flower cultivation is possible in any state, the real challenge comes after flowering when the seed undergoes vegetative reproduction. That stage is still a challenge, and if scientists can address it, then indoor saffron farming could become highly successful. But for now, it’s still in an experimental phase. Farmers need to understand the entire cycle of saffron corms and the technical details involved, only then they can fully harness the potential of indoor farming.”
Facing the challenge of corm protection, a local farmer from Pampore (who wished to remain anonymous) noted that corm multiplication is crucial for sustaining indoor saffron farming. “I couldn’t safeguard the corms, which is why I discontinued this farming method,” he said.
As far as NABARD’s support is concerned, a new farmer needs to invest in saffron corms in the first year, with a quintal (100 kg) costing around Rs. 40,000. Farmers can start with a quintal or even a smaller quantity. Multi-tier racks and trays are also needed, costing between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 5,000. Labour costs are estimated at Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000, bringing the total investment to around Rs. 100,000.
Thus, individual farmers can initiate indoor saffron farming on their own.
The President of the Saffron Growers Association in Kashmir is in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with an organisation based out of Kashmir, aiming to invest about Rs. 200 million in indoor saffron farming. “They’ll be arriving any time to set up a vertical farming structure using 125 quintals of saffron corms. Their goal is to achieve a yield ten times greater than traditional saffron farming, using advanced Israeli technology. The project will cover an area of 235 feet.
Innovative farming in action,let us hope a bumper crop is getting actualised by this Technology intervention in Saffron farming.
We as marketers try to help our farmers to increase production to get proper marketing but scientists from SKUAST-K is the authority to guide them in this new initiative.

Leisurely available

Summer and sun in my kitchen garden

Be humble

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMEONE AHEAD OF YOU IN LIFE… BE HUMBLE

Amitabh Bachchan (a bollywood actor) says:
At the peak of my career, I was once travelling by plane. The passenger next to me was elderly gentleman dressed in a simple shirt and pants.

He appeared to be middle class, and well educated.

Other passengers perhaps recognising who I was, but this gentleman appeared to be unconcerned of my presence… He was reading his paper, looking out of the window, and when tea was served, he sipped it quietly.

Trying to strike a conversation with him, I smiled. The man courteously smiled back and said, ‘Hello’.

We got talking and I brought up the subject of cinema and movies and asked : “Do you watch films?”

The man replied, ‘Oh, very few. I did see one many years ago.’

I mentioned that I worked in the movie industry.

The man replied :
“oh, that’s nice. What do you do?”

I replied :
“I am an actor”

The man nodded, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’
And that was it…

When we landed, I held out my hand and said, ” It was good to travel with you. By the way, my name is Amitabh Bachchan!’

The man shook my hand and smiled, “Thank you… nice to have met you…I am J. R. D. Tata!”

(Mr TATA is a billionaire industrialist that owns TATA Group of Companies).

I learned on that day that no matter how big you think you are, there is always someone bigger than you. Be humble, it costs nothing.

B E H A V I O R is always Greater Than Knowledge,

Because In Life There Are Many Situations Where Knowledge Fails, But Behavior Can Handle almost E V E R Y T H I N G!

#EidMubarak2024 to all.

Status of Agriculture Horticulture and allied sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.

While conducting #SAS report which percolates into analytical data into wide range of analysis procedures to help users navigate data so that the most succinct features in data may be readily transparent and subsequently analyzed. But sometimes data misses the bus of basic field reality.
While going through a brief up by Venky Ramachandran which touched the shining and brawny points about agriculture scene of UT I would add few words.
UT of J and K is a Agri economy driven territory and innovative marketing practices need to be applied to enhance its penetration.
We produce 25 Lac MT of Apple and we are contributing more than 85%of apple produce in India. The industry involves more than 75%of population and derive 9 crores of man-days of working.
Horticulture is the back bone of economy in the UT of J and K which accounts for Rs 12000 crore of economic activity annually. It is the reason of creation of 9 crores of man days annually out of involvement of 7 Lac families directly giving economic pumps. 35 Lacs of people in the UT are directly in the trade which accounts involvement of more than 28% of population in Horticulture activities.
85% share of Apple in the country is originating from UT of J&K which 9.5% GDP so this industry needs to be taken well care as it is reason of smile on the economic activities of prized UT. But lack of infrastructure including grading line ups and CA store capacity tossed with free flow of fruit trucks on NH44 need to be looked into.
We are grateful to #Intellolabs for helping small and marginal farmers in establishing grading lineups in individual capacity.
Even we e are very grateful to various startups of India who have focused on holistic development of Agriculture by strengthening the FPO culture in our UT. And on govt front farmers find it difficult to get any solace in FPO formation as NABARD has its own yard sticks to frame FPO culture in our territory.
On the other side #ISAP who are always active in involving small and marginal growers during buyer seller meets to remove the asymmetry of demand and ensure proper marketing linkages.
But the importance which the sector of Apple industry of Kashmir needs have never been given instead thrust is diverted toward tourism.
Apple Industry.
It is true our tourism too has a potential but tourism is subservient to peace whereas Fruit industry is not
We need to have 7Lac MT,s of CA store capacity to arrest postharvest losses but have hardly 2.5Lac MT,s of cold chain facilities available in private sector. Another part of this mess of cold chain is its concentration in a particular areas of Pulwama/Shopian with other equally rich bowls without any service.
This inefficiency in cold chain mechanism inside the UT becomes the reason of glut in the APMC yards of the country .
HD plantation had come as a challenge because we don’t have quarantine centres, incubation centres and mechanism to assure our farmers as what will be the actual product. Our farmers adopt HD Apple plantation with the hope that one particular variety of fruit will be harvested but get disheartened when they derive some unmarketable variety of fruit. Our system even fails to produce locally grown root Stocks to avoid spreading diseases imported without following plant material quarantine guidelines.
During recent past we have seen mushrooming of leaf miner diseases spread in many areas due to haphazard way of handling plant material from foreign shores without following quarantine laws. This is the reason that farmers are confused with HD Apple plantation. Increasing productivity without proper marketing and infrastructure puts our farmers to grave losses.
Our national highway 44 is our main transit connectivity and it remains closed for more than 4 months on an average and it causes Transit losses. Why don’t system gets evolved to allow fruit/ vegetable laden trucks a Hassel free moment.
Saffron.
We are leaders in Saffron production but we are bend to convert rich Saffron fields into concrete structures to pave way for national highway and other unauthorized earth digging activities . If India research Centre for saffron at Pampore was established for securing the depleting saffron production why system failed to implement the recommendation of expert teams for providing irrigation facilities by way of installation of water pumps to safeguard the interests of Saffron farmers. It is also a fact that GI tagging doubled the income of saffron farmers from Rs 75000/ Kg to Rs 1.5Lac/ Kg .
Vegetables.
We grow quality organic exotic vintage vegetables but marketing and branding concepts have not been fully implemented. We even have World class organic garlic with best Aroma but our authorities still are scratching their heads whether it is seed or vegetable. The irony is that our raw garlic laden trucks are halted on NH44 for days together and treating it as seeds. I have been championing this cause and sometimes traffic officials allow such trucks and facilitate them to go on priority which otherwise should be the norm as we have no garlic processing units in side Kashmir so it goes in raw vegetable form to many destinations.
We even export garlic to USA and other middle East countries given known Quality and aroma our produce have. Garlic from china is already banned in such countries due to excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides.
But mechanism for value addition for garlic, exotic vegetables and saffron is seen nowhere.
Walnut.
UT of J&K is again a leader territory in Walnut production in whole of India and scope is huge but untapped. Walnut oil is in huge demand and segment is still under utilised as schemes under PMFME were utilised but financial institutions are hesitant to finance such schemes which takes sheen off from value addition of Walnut. Outer Hard shell of Walnut have a role in painting and cosmetics industry but our farmers fail to actualize it . We have yet to see a step taken by govt to label organic certificate for our purily organic walnut which could have challenged the flow of imported inorganic Walnut.
Almonds .
Almond of Kashmir is again a product with unique IP but it’s production is depleting and on the other side it’s demand in local and international market is increasing given known it’s purity,oil content and taste.
Lavender farming.
Niech products like lavender oil, lavender tea, lavender hand wash, Lavender leaf boutique and many more value addition of lavender can be achieved if technology in lavender farming is chipped in the holistic health department of lavender farming in UT of J and K. We need to have analyses labs available to get GC-MCreports of lavender oil to explore international markets which crave for lavender oil from Jammu and Kashmir.
When they draw survey reports they forget to know the ground realities, be it SAS survey or levis path trajectory, we need to listen to the vibes of farmers who look for techniques technology, postharvest management schemes to avoid losses to the big sectors of Agriculture Horticulture and allied sectors.
We do get investment from Incofin India progress fund investment for our Entrepreneurs at Qul fruit but more needs to be pump in to make our UT the champion state to grow more in Horticulture and allied sectors .
NITI Aayog Shri Amitab Kant may dream High of UT of J and K and we appreciate it to have our UT of J and K among the champion states to grow but we must use the fuel of passion,the wings of honesty and roads of innovative ideas in achieving this milestone so that hard labour of our farmers are suitably awarded.
We have small and marginal farmers in UT of J and K and they do farming on individual bases,they cannot dream big but we as postharvest management professional have a role to educate them to regroup into FPO culture and harvest good results for their hard farming.
The mission farmers goes on till last farmer of country is reached.