SHAKEELA ANDRABI
SRINAGAR: Saffron growers of Kashmir were not satisfied, even on getting saffron mission and GI Tag, as their income was constantly declining rather than rising. On July 9,2021 STATE TIMES published a detailed report on Saffron and saffron growers.
The Union Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fulfilled the long pending demand of Saffron growers. On August 9, 2021 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Government’s decision to market world famous Saffron of Jammu and Kashmir across the country through National Agriculture Cooperating Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED), which will give big boost to the farming.
While interacting with one of the Saffron grower Abdul Majeed Wani of Kashmir via video conferencing, Modi said the Government wants fragrance of Jammu and Kashmir saffron to spread across the world.
“For this, we are all together. Results have started coming,” he added.
Wani lauded Prime Minister for doubling income of Saffron farmers in 2021, much before the target of 2022 set by him.
“Saffron production had taken a hit. I have been doing saffron farming for last 30 years but it was not fetching much. With the Government’s intervention and strenuous efforts under Saffron Mission, the farming has been revived. Now we have new technology as well as incentives which will provide benefit to all growers,” Wani said.
Wani said earlier he was earning just Rs 90,000 to Rs 1.1 lakh per kilogram, but with the creation of Saffron Park, he said, he was now getting Rs 2.25 lakh or even Rs 2.3 lakh per kilogram.
“Your dream of doubling income of the farmers has been fulfilled. You had set the target of doubling our income in 2022 but our income has doubled in 2021 because of your efforts,” Wani told the Prime Minister and said that farmers have been benefitted a lot as Saffron has got identity due to GI tag.
“e-auction has also been helping the farmers a lot,” he added.
Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh tagged the Prime Minister’s tweet on marketing of Jammu and Kashmir saffron through NAFED and hailed the decision.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha also expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for sale of Saffron through NAFED.
Calling the Government’s initiatives like Geographical Indication (GI) tagging and Spice Park at Pampore a game-changer for the Saffron growers of the area, Wani said the India International Kashmir Saffron Trading Centre (IIKSTC) provided opportunity of e-auction for the Saffron growers, thereby fetching them double the prices for their crop.
He believed that by establishing the Spice Park, e-auction was done to market Kashmiri Saffron while as GI tagging provided an authentication certificate to the crop at national and international market where customers can buy genuine Saffron instead of fake brands sold in the name of Kashmiri Saffron.
Wani said that the Saffron cultivation faced a hitch but due to the Government’s timely intervention through National Saffron Mission (NSM), it is back on track.