Endangered Saffron crop and National Saffron mission!

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Chrysanthemums are the most prominent blooms during autumn in Kashmir. However, a visit to sprawling karewas of Pampore provides a mesmerizing scene of Saffron flowers emerging almost straight from the soil making a vibrant, colourful painting on a rugged canvas. Anyone gets hooked to fascinating Saffron colouration with an aura of joie de vivre. Saffron, the king of spices, is not only pride of Kashmir, but it depicts the rich history and heritage of Kashmir and its people. With reddish-purple flowers, crimson floral threads (stigmas and styles) it governs our colour sense, and through unique fragrance and pigment our cuisine culture. Anyways, the decreasing pro-duce of Saffron in Kashmir for the last many years is a matter of concern. In 2010 authorities through federal governments, all-out assistance started ambitious 'National Saffron Mission' (NSM) with a huge investment. The mission was a multi-pronged strategy of rejuvenation and restore congenial cultivation conditions to revive the Saffron cultivation to its pristine glory and increase the flower production. The mission was well conceived with thrust on replacing exhausted seed corms and encouraging farmers to adopt scientific techniques of cultivation; installing state of the art irrigation mechanism to regulate moisture requirements of the rejuvenated crop. In any crop cultivation, certain factors that give life to the seed are placed ahead of all other operations and requirements. Water is one of the most important and critical factors that govern life in plants and thus has placed at the top on the chronological order in the process of cultivation. And National Saffron Mission while implementing the program has failed at this particular point. Rejuvenation was started in 2011 along with thrust on weaning farmers off the traditional cultivation of lesser corms per square meter and along with other climatic issues required a larger and assured moisture management mechanism. Unfortunately, NSM managers started a crucial operation without establishing the crucial lifeline—the water. Interestingly, the all-out transformation process engaged the whole farming community and the implementing team into a festive voyage of pampering farmers through subsidies and giveaways bothering least about the essential requirements of irrigation. It is reported that under NSM more than a hundred bore-wells were to be dug and commissioned but till a week ago only half are said to be functional, and not a single well stands connected to the endpoint of the irrigation system. The shanty corrugated tin sheet covered pump stations dot-ting the once most beautiful landscape looks obnoxious. The black pipes scattered all over the fields provide a war like situation— the war against Saffron! Few sprinklers popping out of the fields are itself vying with the dry surrounds fora drop of water. Alas! The NSM planners never asked the people on the ground why they have put the proverbial cart before the horse. NSM as per its timeframe and parameters was accomplished a few years back, and then it got an extension and now the second extension is in operation (without rejuvenation provisions), but the irrigation system is yet to be commissioned. So, since 2011 the whole rejuvenation was at the mercy of rain gods! And now as the festive rejuvenation package has stopped and the farmers who were used to pampering and freebies and were very little bothered about the saffron production are feeling the heat. The real grower within has risen from the deep slumber, and they have started calculating cost-benefit ratio and counting their chicken. A few days back I had a chance to hear the Saffron farmers. They were all fire against the implementing agencies but had no reply for their inactivity since 2011. Apparently, National Saffron Mission seems to have failed, but it has left its mark on the revival efforts of Saffron in Kashmir. Certainly, the monitoring and evaluation procedure of NSM has got compromised during implementation. However, it is only the irrigation[MIH1] part of NSM that has failed miserable and impaired the other aspects of the mission. The failure has cost farmers their produce and precious time. And on the part of the authorities, they have lost a substantial part on upgradation efforts. The best option at this crucial juncture will be to put all efforts on commissioning the sprinkler system at an earliest and save whatever is left of the rejuvenation process in the best interest of the Saffron and Saffron growers. And after that, a high-level fact-finding commission should be constituted that will fix the responsibilities for failure in timely commissioning of the irrigation system and shortfalls (if any) in NSM at the planning level.

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