With Kashmir’s help, saffron successfully grown in Sikkim for first time

Ziraat Times Team Report

Srinagar: Saffron has been successfully grown in a village in Sikkim this year for the first time.

The pilot project, run by the Ministry of Science and Technology, through the Department of Science and Technology (DST), in Yangyang village of South Sikkim, produced its first crop of saffron this September.

“Saffron seed/ corms were purchased and air-transported from Kashmir to Yangyang by the department. One saffron grower was engaged and stationed to look after the complete growing process, along with the faculty of the university,” the DST said in a statement.

“With no prior experience in growing saffron, we sought help and appointed a Pampore-based farmer for this task. Seeds were specially procured from Pampore; sowing and other schedules, like those undertaken in Kashmir, were followed during September and October,” Krishna Kumar, a scientist at NECTAR, told The Indian Express.

The Department is now looking at extending its cultivation to some state in the Northeast.

“Once the quality of the saffron is assessed, this will be scaled up ten times in Sikkim itself”, Dr Arun K Sarma, Director General, North East Centre For Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR), was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

“We are also looking at extending the cultivation of saffron to Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, where we feel that the conditions are favourable,’’ he said.

Pertinently, from newly formed Union Territory of Ladakh to Bharmour in Himachal Pradesh and from Uttarakhand to Himachal Pradesh, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology has already started experimenting with cultivation of saffron crop there.