Progressive farmer Irshad Ahmad Dar has collected this season’s first Saffron crop, many kilograms of fresh petals of the flower, from his fields at Chandhara, Samboora and Patalbagh in Pampore, known for the cultivation of this expensive crop.

The aroma of sweet saffron flowers has brought cheers up on his face and like many farmers, he is expecting a good crop this year.

The young farmer from Patalbagh village of Pampore Tehsil narrated that since 2021 climatic conditions have been kind to them.

Though rains were delayed, there were no longer dry spells as were seen previously.

Irshad believes that the recent rainfall will trigger a full bloom in the next one or two days. 

Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal, Director Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare Kashmir told Rising Kashmir that he has been inspecting the saffron fields for the past seven days. 

“As per my observations, every corm in the beds will bear flowers this season. We will have a much better crop production than the previous year,” he said, adding that the department is in the process of determining the projected figure for this year, which will be released soon.”

 Last year the production was around 15 metric tonnes.

Owner of 20 kanals of saffron land, Irshad Dar hopes to reap a better crop than the previous year.

He hopes to get around 2.4 kilograms of dry saffron (Stigma) per hectare.

Like Irshad another saffron farmer from Shaarshali Village of Pampore, Abdul Majeed Wani too has collected first crop of fresh flowers from his fields.

He too hopes to get a bumper crop this year.

According to Majeed, president of All Saffron Growers Association, a good number of corms are present in the saffron beds.

 “Rains during the critical period helped in strengthening roots of corms and moisture content due to recent rain will trigger a uniform simultaneous bloom in a day or two,” he said.

The Karewas of Pampore, Samboora, Chandhara, Lethpora, and Patalbagh wear a beautiful look after sprouting of saffron flowers, though the bloom is still sparse.

Many tourists and visitors along the Srinagar -Jammu National highway were seen halting their vehicles to click pictures and selfies in the nearby saffron fields.

This area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district is known for producing the world’s best quality saffron.