Understanding Kashmir Saffron Crisis: Why Are Farmers Choosing Apples Over World's Most Expensive Spice
What ails saffron cultivation in Kashmir: From dry spells to corm smuggling, ETV Bharat looks at the issues farmers of this ever-in-demand spice face.
Published : November 26, 2025 at 10:36 PM IST
|Updated : November 27, 2025 at 8:43 PM IST
Pampore: A paved road cuts through the middle of vast karewas in Pampore, a township just outside Srinagar known for cultivating saffron, the costliest spice in the world.
On the edge of the road lies Dussu village. For years, between October and November, its resident and saffron farmer, Mohammad Asif Azad, would see his hamlet literally draped in purple flowers as the saffron harvest would overgrow the fields and courtyards. But now, silence and gloom loom over.
"We harvested a mere 250 grams of saffron in November this year," says Azad, who owns 15 kanals of saffron-growing land in the village. "It is five times lower than last year’s annual 1.5 kilograms of produce. It cannot even cover Rs 35,000 incurred on labour charges."
Saffron or kesar is believed to have origins in southern Europe and is cultivated in Iran, Spain and Turkey. In India, the expensive spice is exclusively grown in Kashmir’s Karewas in Pampore. Twenty-six villages in Pampore are dependent on their livelihood on saffron farming and produce 15 metric tonnes (MT) annually.
Karewas are highly fertile alluvial soil deposits found in Pampore, Budgam and other districts in the Pirpanjal region. They are high table-land and are suitable for saffron cultivation. In 1859, British Geologist Godwin-Austin was the first one to use the term karewa to refer to a sequence of unconsolidated to semi-consolidated sand-clay-conglomerate.
Over the years, the karewas have been shrinking because of multiple factors, including soil extraction, climate change, conversion of land to non-agricultural and rapid urbanisation. Between 2019-2024, these factors have contributed to a decline in saffron production, with the annual production reducing from over 17 metric tonnes to 14 MT. Likewise, land under saffron cultivation has shrunk from 4,496 hectares to little over 23,00 ha from 1993 to 2024.
But this year has seen the "lowest" yield in decades, according to officials, without citing numbers as "estimates are underway". For Abdul Majeed Wani, who leads an association of 300 saffron growers in Jammu and Kashmir, this year's produce is "equivalent to what we would offer in charity during our childhood".
"It is just 10 per cent of last year's 14 MT," he told ETV Bharat. "Saffron growers were never interested in government jobs, as our earnings were sufficient to sustain us. But now, our young generation is looking for jobs as this farming is not sustainable after the next five years.”
Azad graduated from a nursing college with a four-year degree in 2016. But instead of pursuing a career in his profession, he followed his parents to inherit the farming of his forefathers. Now, a father of a one-year-old boy, the 32-year-old does not want the next generation to follow the family suit as saffron cultivation sharply declines.
“It is untenable now. There is no irrigation and long dry spells have made it worse to sustain saffron farming,” said Azad. Four years ago, he set up a small shop dealing with fertilisers and pesticides in the village to add to their primary income from saffron farming. "But now, this shop is our lifeline," says Azad, who is even mulling replacing saffron with high-density apple cultivation.
Dr SA Dar, who is Professor and head Advanced Research Station for Saffron and Seed Spices set up by Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Kashmir (SKUAST-K) in Pampore, appears worried as the annual crop decline shows an upward trend. He cites multiple reasons, including the key three-month-long driest spell last year.
"Karewas are dependent on precipitation," says Dar, whose station provides scientific intervention to the farmers. "But drought-like situations from October till December last year caused a decline in saffron production this year."
In 2024, Jammu and Kashmir experienced its driest year in five decades with a 29 percent deficit in rainfall. The SKUAST Station has scheduled five irrigation schedules for farmers between August (pre-flowering) and the second week of December (post-harvest).
Dar predicts a further decline in saffron production next year as the ongoing dry spell in Kashmir can cast a blow on next year's produce.
“Saffron corm multiplication and development require irrigation or moist conditions," he told ETV Bharat. "But since there is no precipitation, the irrigation system is not working. After harvest, corm multiplication requires moisture and chilly temperatures so that the mother corm multiplies into cormlets. These cormlets produce flowers once they reach seven grams. Subsequently, there is a deficit of corms.”
The red-coloured spice develops from saffron corms that are beneath the soil. It multiples underneath after the flowering season ends in November, explains Dr Neyaz Ahmad Dar, an assistant professor at SKUAST's saffron station. He is leading research on in-vitro micro-corm production for improving saffron production under controlled conditions.
“The deficit of corms is due to a lack of moisture and its illegal trade. We have a requirement of 6,600 metric tonnes of corms," he says. "Many farmers sell corms at a cost outside the state for growing saffron there."
"100 kilograms of corms fetch between Rs 1.2-1.5 lakh. Those growing saffron indoors outside the Valley are using these corms," says Dar.
"Corms can produce saffron anywhere once they get the required chilly conditions here during winters. But they cannot produce saffron next season due to the lack of ambient cold temperature outside Kashmir," he said, describing the exercise as futile until their in vitro corm project succeeds.
In 2010-11, the central government launched the National Mission of Saffron with a budget of Rs 400 crore to rejuvenate its cultivation by introducing sprinkling irrigation facilities. Under the scheme, 253 tube wells and over 3,700 sprinkler sets were to be installed across Pulwama and Budgam, with 128 tube wells in Pampore alone.
Each borewell was intended to serve an area of 30 hectares, connected to sprinkler irrigation systems designed to support the irrigation needs of saffron fields. On the ground, however, the saffron growers' lack of functional borewells has contributed to their misery, with their pipes and accessories "stolen" as the system lay defunct.
Wani, the saffron grower, notes that the government programme has failed to yield its purpose as the entire borewell system is defunct.
“We held a meeting with senior agriculture officials at the civil secretariat in October. The government wants growers to run the community borewell on their own, including paying for fuel, which we cannot afford," he says. "For an hour, it requires 4-5 litres of diesel. We have to run it for at least 15-20 days and it can leave us in dire straits.”
On the trial basis, the growers suggested officials operate 10 borewells on solar energy or electricity, he adds. Faced with mounting losses, Wani says that saffron is being replaced with high-density apples, as that has assured dividends and is a less labour-intensive crop.
Azad agrees their future does not lie in saffron farming but in apple cultivation, as that can fetch good returns. “I developed a high-density apple orchard on a kanal of land a year ago, and it drew Rs 55,000 this year. Given the low saffron production, I am planning to convert the entire parcel of land to an apple orchard," he says.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the smuggling of corm outside the union territory stands prohibited, says Kashmir Director of Agriculture Sartaj Ahmad Shah. In one such instance, J&K Police apprehended four persons and seized saffron corms weighing about 150 kilograms from their possession in south Kashmir’s Awantipora in August. They were transporting them outside the Valley.
"We are introducing a law to act to ensure a blanket ban on corm transportation under the Saffron Act, 2007,” Shah told ETV Bharat, adding that they are also planning to set up a corm plantation nursery and revive the irrigation system.
Amid this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and SKUAST-Kashmir are introducing Artificial Intelligence-based agri-bots for easing labour-intensive saffron farming.
The programme covered under Himalayan crop management designs agrobots for removing weeds, picking flowers and separating tiny red stigmas. Each kilogram of saffron is produced from 1.6 lakh flowers, and a little delay reduces red stigma recovery, says SKUAST’s chief invigilator of the Himalayan crop management programme, Syed Zameer Hussain.
“But these agribots will separate them as quickly as possible to ensure the saffron retains quality and competes on global markets," he adds.
In a newly developed apple orchard, a middle-aged farmer alongside his wife and teenage son wonders what purpose technology would serve when growers are quitting saffron cultivation.
"Yeli kan teli ne soann (When there is gold for the ear ring, there is no ear)," he quips in Kashmiri.
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