The Saturday Story | Red gold: Kashmir’s saffron story

It takes 160-180 flowers to produce just 1 gram of kesar. DH journalist Zulfikar Majid visits a farm in Pampore to bring you the story of the world’s most expensive spice

On a misty morning in late October, I drove from Srinagar to Pampore, 18 km away. Paddy fields came into view as I hit National Highway 44, and then a patchwork of brown and purple fields emerged as I inched closer to my destination. Located in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, Pampore is at the heart of Kashmir’s saffron heritage.

How is the best saffron in the world grown? Saffron cultivation in Kashmir is done fully manually as opposed to some parts of the world where mechanisation has set in partially. 

I was born and raised in the Valley. I have written dozens of news stories about Kashmiri saffron, mostly reflecting growers’ concerns and what the government is doing. I had seen saffron fields from a distance, but never visited them until recently.

Ground reality

A friend from my college days, Wahid Wani, is a saffron farmer. He joined me in my car near Pampore. He was going to be my guide for the day. Soldiers dotted the 8 km stretch from Pampore all the way to villages like Lethpora and Barsoo, a reminder of the region’s complex security realities. We were stopped by the army at Lethpora, where a suicide bomber had driven a vehicle packed with explosives into a convoy of buses carrying paramilitary CRPF personnel, killing 40 of them, on February 14, 2019.

We could see farmers picking saffron flowers in open fields on either side of the highway. Saffron is harvested once a year, from late October to mid-November. The peak flowering lasts less than 20 days.

At 9.30 am, we arrived at a saffron field near Lethpora. I was expecting a carpet of lilac-purple blooms stretching as far as the eye could
see. The field was half-empty, dry, crumbling, and overrun by rodents.

Flowers of the Crocus sativus, or saffron crocus as they are commonly called, were growing in the rest of the expanse, albeit sparsely. So close were the flowers to the ground that they appeared stemless. When I looked closer, I could see grass-like growth under them. 

Saffron, known as kong in Kashmiri, zaffran in Urdu, and kesar in Hindi, comes from the crimson filament-like parts of the flower, called the stigma. I wanted to learn how to harvest the precious strands, which are used in cooking, skincare, perfumery, textile dyes, and medicine.

Precious harvest

Delicate job

The autumn sun was illuminating the lilac-coloured petals and their purple veins, and the cool air was carrying their sweet aroma. I saw three men knelt on the ground, picking the open blooms and collecting them
in a shopping bag. One of them, Mohammad Ramzan Bhat, welcomed me with a smile. I had to pluck the flowers, not uproot them. That is because one corm, a bulb-like underground stem of the saffron plant, can produce three flowers in a season. I had to use my forefinger and thumb to gently pull the flower away from the stem. Harvesting is not a strenuous process but one that requires time, patience, precision and delicate hands, he made me realise.

Before I could start, I was handed a cup of steaming hot kahwa. It is a traditional Kashmiri green tea, simmered with whole spices, nuts and saffron. In Kashmir, kahwa is our go-to-drink when the temperature drops, or when we are afflicted by cough, cold or fever. Saffron is known to have a warming effect on the body.

I damaged a few flowers as I began. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world, and I guess I wasn’t pulled up for the poor job because I was a guest! But in 15 minutes, I had found a rhythmic motion of plucking, which felt quite meditative.

The stigmas are removed from the flowers later at home, mostly by women. But Ramzan gave me a demonstration on the field. I mimicked his action and pinched off the stigmas. Soon my fingers were stained a light shade of red and orange. I marvelled at how much colour these tiny strands hold. I was not their only admirer. Saffron harvesting is a popular tourist attraction and tourists were working their cameras around us to capture the best shots of ‘the red gold of Kashmir’.

Like a festival

After an hour of harvesting, the farmers started treating me as one of their own. The silence between us was now replaced with stories. “During my childhood, the harvesting season was like a festival in our village,” began Abid Mushtaq, a graduate in humanities who has inherited half an acre of saffron field.

“Dressed in neat clothes, entire families would reach the fields early in the morning, leaving their shoes out as a mark of respect. People from other villages would set up stalls around saffron farms to sell groceries and woollen clothes,” he continued.

“If children worked sincerely, elders would give them a packet of biscuits as a reward. The packet would cost Re 1. Harvesting days were no less than Eid for us back then,” Mushtaq, now 45, reminisced.

Two decades ago, the yield was so rich that Mushtaq’s family would spend all their winter drying, packing and selling the stigmas. “Our house would smell of saffron and our palms would be golden all the time,” he said.

Mushtaq hails from the Namblabal village of Pampore, where farmers pray and offer money at a shrine and tomb at the start of the harvesting season. Legend has it that saffron arrived in Kashmir in the 11th or 12th century CE, when two Sufi ascetics, Khwaja Masood Wali and Hazrat Sheikh Shariffudin, wandered here from Central Asia. They fell sick, and sought a cure from a local tribal chieftain, and got better. As a gesture of thanks, the legend goes, the holy men gave him a saffron crocus bulb.

The author at a popular saffron selling showroom in south Kashmir

However, Kashmiri poet and scholar Mohammed Yusuf Teng argues that the region has cultivated saffron for over two millennia.

Now, the “aura” of saffron farming has dimmed, Mushtaq lamented. Unaware of the local tradition, migrant labourers enter the saffron fields with footwear. The new generation of local saffron growers has also moved away from bare-feet farming. Hailing from saffron-growing families of Pampore was once a matter of prestige. Today, the hybrid apple is a more profitable crop here. Saffron farmers are driving trucks, selling tea or taking up government jobs to supplement their income on the side. Repurposing the saffron fields for other business opportunities is not an option for them. It’s prohibited under the Saffron Act of 2007.

Garbage mess

Vast stretches of land in Pampore that once teemed with saffron now lie barren. Saffron is a relatively expensive crop to grow in terms of input costs. Uncertain weather patterns, market fluctuations, and competition from synthetic food colours and cheaper Iranian and Afghani varieties have affected the business. The profits have declined by more than half in 20 years, say farmers.

Saffron is a moisture-loving crop, fed primarily by rains in Kashmir. “Only half of the saffron beds are in bloom because of scant rains. Climate change has hit us hard,” farmer Javeed Ahmad Kuchay pitched in.

Civic apathy is another woe. Kuchay took me to a garbage dump on the edge of the saffron field. It has come up recently, bringing with it the menace of rats and stray dogs. Rats eat the corms underground while dogs trample on the flowers. In response to the farmers’ protests, the municipal body has asked for six months to relocate the dumpsite.

We continued our conversations over a typical Kashmiri lunch of rice, haakh (greens), rajma dal, and curd. After lunch, we drove 6 km to meet Farooq Ahmad in the village of Khrew. About 90% of the 1,000
families living here once grew saffron, now only a handful do.

When we arrived, Ahmad and his wife were seated in the gentle warmth of the afternoon sun in their shaded verandah. They were deftly extracting stigmas from the saffron flowers and dropping them inside a transparent jar. The air was filled with a honey-like scent. Tempted, I requested a cup of kahwa even before my hosts, known to Wani, could say anything.

The stigmas must be harvested within a few hours of flowering to preserve their flavour, colour, and fragrance. They are then air-dried under the shade for 2-3 days, and stored in airtight containers.

Ahmad, 62, owns 16 kanals (two acres) of saffron fields. When I asked him about the heyday of saffron cultivation in Khrew, the conversation took a sad turn instead. Cement factories have put 490 acres of saffron fields in the area under severe threat.

“Saffron flowers are very delicate. Cement dust contains nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. It settles on the saffron flowers, impacting their growth and quality,” Ahmad said.

His children are reluctant to carry on the family’s saffron cultivation legacy, and that bothers him, too.

Costly affair

It is not just the farmers’ livelihood that is at stake but also their pride.

Iran accounts for 88% of the world’s saffron production. India is a distant second with 7%, with our yield coming primarily from Kashmir. Spain, Greece and Italy come further down on the global list.

Yet, Kashmiri saffron is considered the best in the world. Saffron’s deep hue and medicinal properties come from a component called crocin. As per local agriculture officials, Kashmiri saffron contains roughly 8.72% crocin, compared to 6.82% found in Iranian saffron. Kashmiris douse their tea with saffron strands for everything from lowering blood pressure and treating anaemia to alleviating migraines and insomnia. Even the petals have healing power, locals believe. They save up the petals and add them to boiling tea.

Author (in cap) harvest saffron flowers with a local.  

No wonder Kashmiri saffron is both prized and priced highly. About 160-180 flowers need to be plucked to extract 1 gm of saffron. In a day’s work, from 9 am until sundown, a labourer can pick 500-600 flowers.

At the shops, a 10 gm dabba of pure saffron is sold for Rs 2,500 to
Rs 3,000. You may get a discount of Rs 200-Rs 300 if you buy it directly from growers in Pampore. If somebody is selling you 10 gm of saffron for a lower price, consider it adulterated.

Stop at a showroom

At 5 pm, I bid goodbye to my friend Wani and my hosts, Ahmad and his wife, for the final leg of my journey. I pulled up outside Shudh Kashmiri Kesar along NH44 near Barsoo. Tourists queue up here to buy
Kashmiri saffron and dry fruits.

I was greeted by the showroom’s owner Firdous Ahmad Bhatt. The counter and the almirahs had big glass jars of saffron. Depending on the customer’s request, he packs them in 1 gm, 5 gm, 10 gm and 100 gm dabbas, priced between Rs 300 and Rs 30,000. “Some tourists buy five dabbas of 1 gm saffron. Well-off customers pack a dozen 10-gm dabbas at a time,” Firdous told me about his bestselling product.

Saffron is as much a luxury for Kashmiris as it is for the world outside. Just because it grows in our backyard doesn’t mean we get it cheap. And, like chilli, turmeric and fennel, saffron is not an integral spice in our kitchen. Most households open their dabba of saffron during Eid or to beat cold with the kahwa. The poor can’t even afford it. “Back in the day, when beggars came to the fields during the harvest season, they were given saffron,” recalled Firdous, a science graduate and third-generation saffron businessman.

Wazwan is perhaps the grandest show of how Kashmiri saffron elevates both the savoury and sweet dishes well. Wazwan is a multi-course, mostly meat-based feast, served during weddings, birthdays and memorial services. In addition to mutton dishes, saffron goes into desserts like phirni, kheer, gajar halwa, and zamodod (curd).

I thanked Firdous and steered my car towards Srinagar. The patchwork of brown and purple fields came into my view again. The sun was casting a golden hue on them.

Precious harvest

A kilo of pure Kashmiri saffron fetches Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 lakh in the wholesale market. Pure saffron does not break if you rub it between fingers and
it leaves behind a light orange or yellow colour. Fake saffron may disintegrate or leave a dark red colour on your fingers.

Saffron mission yet to take root

In 2011, the Jammu & Kashmir government launched the Rs 400 crore National Saffron Mission. It aimed to employ scientific techniques for tilling the land and growing corms, provide irrigation through borewells and sprinklers, and set up a ‘saffron park’ complete with facilities for mechanised processing, testing, and e-trading. The mission has missed two deadlines since, and is facing corruption charges.

Kashmir currently produces 9.5 metric tonnes of saffron while its potential is estimated to be double, according to the agriculture department. These saffron farmers, who use conventional cultivation methods, say they can’t match up to Iran, which has ventured into climate-controlled indoor farming.

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