A cultivation trial in Baramulla has started to yield positive results as saffron flowers have bloomed introducing the North Kashmir’s district on the saffron map of Jammu and Kashmir.
The brain behind the saffron project in Baramulla is Professor Abdul Majid Chalkoo who with the help of the agriculture department started the cash crop’s extensive cultivation at the Government Degree College Baramulla.
“With the aid of the agriculture department and a handful of his students, I started this project at the college after getting influenced by the cultivation in the Pampore region of South Kashmir,” Professor Chalkoo told Rising Kashmir.
He began investigating the viability of saffron cultivation on 3-marla land on the college grounds in 2017.
“We collected 300 flowers as the first produce,” he added.
According to Professor Chalkoo, the experiment to grow saffron on 5 marlas of land had amazing results in 2022. He claimed that the product has every element found in a saffron flower.
“We are hopeful that there will be a good crop next year,” he added.
Even though the Kandi belt in Baramulla has the ideal soil composition for saffron production, the College’s Department of Botany headed by Professor Abdul Majid Chalkoo’s investigation into the viability of saffron cultivation there yielded promising results.
The project got underway after the Department of Botany decided to set up saffron beds on a designated plot of land on the college’s campus as part of promoting agro-based skill training to the students.
Professor Chalkoo said that the department used 40 kg of corms (bulbs) and planted those in September last year.
“The graded corms each weighing 8 gm and above were sown six inches deep in soil with six inch spacing between corms,” he said.
“The results were encouraging. The saffron constituents like crocin, picrocrocin, and saffranol content of stigma were at par with the saffron cultivated in the saffron-rich belt of Pampore.”
Encouraged by its first attempt, the faculty of the Botany Department has now planted 50 kg of new corms and collected around 500 saffron flowers.
The professor said that the students are now being imparted training about flower morphology, stigma separation, collection, and drying techniques.
The project is approved by the Science, Technology, and Innovation Council of Jammu and Kashmir.
“After a detailed proposal for cultivation of saffron in Baramulla, the J&K Science Technology and Innovation Council issued a project worth 5 lakh rupees. In this project we got expert opinions from Director Spice and Saffron Seed Station, Agriculture Department Baramulla and progressive farmers,” he added.
Professor Chalkoo told Rising Kashmir that youth, progressive farmers and agriprenuers of district Baramulla can start saffron cultivation in Karewas (raised soil) with expert opinion and information from the respective departments.
Following the successful results, the faculty members of the department have identified a piece of sizable land at Shrakwara Wagoora in the Baramulla district and the attempt is aimed at broadening saffron cultivation prospects in the climate-suitable area of Kandi Baramulla.
An official from the Department of Agriculture, Baramulla told Rising Kashmir that they would also try to explore the possibility of its plantation in the Kandi area which has prospects for saffron cultivation.
“We have received some funds for the medicinal plant farm and we will start to work on saffron cultivation in the Kandi belt of Baramulla district,” the official added.
