Bilal Habib
PAMPORE, October 31: Progressive farmer from Pampore area, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Bhat has recorded a bumper saffron harvest this year, attributing his success to timely irrigation.
Belonging to an agricultural family, Bhat dug his own borewell and invested his personal resources to ensure timely irrigation of his saffron fields. His efforts have yielded encouraging results, with the farmer harvesting around 100 kilograms of saffron flowers so far this season.
Bhat’s success highlights the importance of timely irrigation in improving saffron productivity, particularly at a time when growers across the region are facing challenges due to inadequate irrigation facilities.
Saffron, popularly known as “red gold” because of its distinctive aroma, flavour and colouring properties, is primarily cultivated in Pampore and its adjoining areas in south Kashmir.
Speaking to Morning Kashmir, Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Bhat, son of Ghulam Hassan, a resident of Munpora, Pampore, said
“First of all, I thank Almighty Allah. We had not expected such a bumper saffron crop this year, and we are extremely happy with the encouraging harvest. So far, we have harvested more than 100 kilograms of saffron flowers.
The secret behind this bumper crop is timely irrigation. Irrigation is essential at different stages, including before flowering, after flowering and during the flowering period. We start irrigating our fields in August, before the pre-flowering stage, and provide irrigation two to three times. We also ensure irrigation after flowering.
Hard work is important, but timely irrigation plays an equally crucial role.
Just as a human being needs oxygen to survive, saffron plants need adequate water at the right time. Without proper irrigation, achieving a bumper crop is difficult.
The government extended significant support to saffron growers through the National Saffron Mission launched in 2011, under which around 125 borewells were dug. However, certain shortcomings remained.
One of the major issues was the large catchment area allocated to each borewell, which was around 600 to 700 kanals of land.
In my opinion, this was one of the reasons why the irrigation facilities could not achieve the desired success. My land is located at one place, but many other farmers have their land scattered across different locations, with holdings of one or two kanals at different spots. It becomes difficult for them to irrigate their fields through a single borewell.
I believe that if the catchment area of each borewell had been restricted to around 50 to 100 kanals instead of 600 to 700 kanals, the irrigation system could have been more effective and successful.
We also have a government-provided borewell, but operating it involves considerable expenses. It requires diesel and regular maintenance, which increases the overall cost. Therefore, I decided to dig my own borewell on my land. It operates on electricity, for which I have obtained the required power connection agreement. Its operational cost is considerably lower compared to the diesel-powered government borewell.”
Speaking to Morning Kashmir, Agriculture Extension Officer Pampore, Mir Ashiq Hussain, said that the saffron harvesting season is currently underway in Pampore, with encouraging flowering being witnessed across several saffron-growing areas.
He said that under the Jammu and Kashmir Competitiveness Improvement Project (JKCIP) scheme launched last year, replanting activities were carried out in different areas of Pampore, and the results are now becoming visible in the form of encouraging flowering.
He said saffron fields in Pampore, Munpora, Konibal, Dusoo, Ladhoo, Chandhara and Lethpora are currently witnessing flowering, bringing considerable happiness to farmers.
“Last year, flowering was considerably affected due to the dry spell, but this year, by the grace of Almighty, timely rainfall has helped the crop, and flowering is being witnessed across saffron fields. Farmers are also very happy to see the encouraging bloom this season,” he said.
Mir Ashiq further said that flowering has started relatively late this year and is still at its initial stage. He expressed hope that the fields would witness full bloom in the coming days, leading to a good saffron yield.
“We are hopeful of a good harvest this year. We expect that the hard work put in by farmers and the efforts made under various initiatives will yield positive results,” he added.
