Efficient watering can help save Kashmir’s saffron: new research confirms

By: Eajaz Dar, M Salim Mir and Zahoor Shah

Saffron is often called the “golden spice,” and in Kashmir it is more than a crop. It is a heritage, a livelihood, and a symbol of the region’s identity. But in recent years, saffron farmers have been facing a growing crisis. The rains that once arrived reliably in September and October, just in time for the delicate purple flowers to emerge, have become unpredictable. Winters bring less snow, summers are hotter, and the soil dries out faster than it used to. Rainfall scarcity has emerged as a major constraint to saffron production, and farmers have watched their yields shrink as climate patterns shift. Many fields that once glowed with saffron blossoms now produce only a fraction of what they did a decade ago.

To understand how to protect this treasured crop, we carried out a detailed field experiment in Pampore over three years. The goal was simple: find out whether carefully timed irrigation, not too much and not too little, could help saffron survive and even thrive despite the changing climate. Instead of relying on guesswork or traditional watering schedules, we used sensors to measure exactly how much moisture was in the soil and when the plants began to feel stress. We tested nine different irrigation strategies, from very frequent watering to almost none, and compared them with the no-irrigation system that most farmers still use.

What we found could change the future of saffron farming in Kashmir.

The clearest result was that saffron responds extremely well when irrigation is applied at the right moment. This happened when the soil had lost about 20 percent of its water since the last time it was fully moist. This treatment, called FC20, produced far more flowers than the non-irrigated plots, and each irrigation in this treatment applied about 18 millimeters of water. In fact, flower numbers increased by 44 percent, a huge improvement for a crop where every blossom counts. The stigmas, the tiny red threads that become saffron, were also longer and heavier. Dry stigma yield increased by 47 percent relative to no irrigation, meaning farmers could nearly double their saffron output simply by watering at the right time. Just as important, this boost in yield did not require large amounts of extra water. The plants used the water more efficiently because it was applied when they needed it most.

Our measurements showed that watering saffron at the right time is more important than how much water you apply. The FC20 treatment used water efficiently and helped the plants grow better. In this treatment, the crop used more of the water for growth, while in non-irrigated plots the plants could not use much water because the soil was too dry. Treatments that received too much water, like ET100 and ET125, wasted a lot of it because saffron roots are shallow and the extra water drained away.

Water productivity results confirmed this. FC20 gave high yield without wasting water, and total water productivity was the best in this treatment in both years. Non-irrigated plots showed high water productivity only because no irrigation water was used, but they produced 32 percent less saffron, which makes non-irrigated farming uneconomical. Treatments that used too much water had the lowest water productivity because the extra water did not increase yield.

The benefits of well-timed irrigation were not limited to the flowers. Saffron’s long-term productivity depends on the health of its corms, the underground bulbs that store energy and produce next year’s flowers. Under non-irrigated conditions, corms remained small and few in number. The total corm yield in non-irrigated plots was only 368 kilograms per Kanal, and not a single large, flowering-sized corm was produced. This is alarming, because without strong corms, saffron fields decline year after year.

In contrast, the FC20 treatment produced many more corms, and importantly, many more large corms capable of producing flowers the following season. Corm yields reached 594 kilograms per Kanal under FC20. These numbers show that proper irrigation does not just improve this year’s harvest. It strengthens the crop for years to come.

The corm multiplication index, which measures how many new corms are produced from each mother corm, was 34 percent higher under FC20 than under non-irrigated conditions. This means that moisture stress slows down the entire life cycle of the plant, while timely irrigation helps the crop rebuild itself.

The study also found that giving too much water can be harmful. Treatments based on high evapotranspiration replacement (ET125) produced many small, non-flowering corms. This shows that saffron does not want to be overwatered. It wants to be watered wisely.

Taken together, these results offer a hopeful path forward. They show that saffron farmers do not need to abandon their fields or wait helplessly for rain. Instead, they can adopt simple, science-based irrigation practices that use water efficiently and dramatically improve yields. Irrigating when the soil has dried by 20 percent of its capacity, a level that can be measured with affordable soil moisture sensors, provides the best balance of flower production, corm growth, and water savings. It also shows that resilience does not always require expensive technology or large amounts of water. Sometimes, it simply requires knowing when to act.

For saffron farmers, this knowledge could be transformative. With precise irrigation, fields that have been declining for years could regain their productivity. Families who depend on saffron could see their incomes stabilize. And the region’s centuries-old saffron tradition could continue to flourish.

Eajaz Dar is an agronomist at SKUAST-Kashmir and is currently on a postdoctoral training at the University of Florida, USA. He can be reached at [email protected]. M S Mir is a research fellow at SKUAST-Kashmir and Z A Shah works as an extension specialist at SKUAST-Kashmir.