Saffron Growers Warn of Deepening Crisis as Harvest Falls Short

Kashmir's famous saffron industry is staring at yet another challenging season, with growers reporting that the crop bloomed for barely a few days this year. They said the overall harvest has remained below 10 percent of the normal output.

- Observer News Service

Farmers said that, unlike earlier years when saffron flowers continued to appear for weeks together, the bloom this time lasted just a few days, leaving fields almost barren soon after.

“This is the worst season we have ever seen,” said Abdul Rashid, a grower from Lethpora. "Normally, we used to pick flowers for 15 to 25 days. This year, we were done in hardly three days.”

“We have lost hope now. For 10 years, we have been begging authorities for timely action, but nobody took us seriously,” Rashid lamented.

Farmers claim that despite repeatedly raising alarms about drying corms, unavailability of irrigation and continuous weather stress, nothing concrete was done on the ground.