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| National Saffron Mission fails to produce desired results as state govt sits over sanctioned money | | Saffron production may be all time low this year | | Jehangir Rashid
SRINAGAR, Sept 18: The production of saffron in Kashmir valley is likely to come down drastically this year as the benefits of irrigation facilities under the National Saffron Mission (NSM) are yet to reach the farmers busy in cultivation of saffron in Pampore and adjacent areas.
The central government's initiative to provide the irrigation facilities have fallen flat since the amount for the same during this year as well as last year are yet to be released. Although, the money has been sanctioned and allotted by the central government it is yet to be released by the state government. This has led to disillusionment among the saffron growers with the major chunk of land not being cultivated by the growers.
"As part of the National Saffron Mission a saffron grower was to get Rs. 25,300 per kanal of land for construction of bore wells in their saffron fields. The scheme carried on nicely for the first two years of 2010 and 2011. In 2012 most of the saffron growers were not provided the amount and same is the case for this year," said Abdul Majid Wani, General Secretary, Saffron Growers Association.
Majid said that under the national level programme 1500 hectares of land were to be taken up and bore wells had to be constructed on this land for better irrigation facilities. He said the failure of scheme for the past two years has forced the saffron growers not to pursue the cultivation of saffron during this year.
"As the bore wells are yet to be constructed on major chunk of land there seems to be no future for the saffron growers. For this year only 200-300 hectares of land has been cultivated and as such the production too would come down for this year. Saffron growers of Pampore, Lethpora, Barsoo and Drusoo are yet to receive amount and as such they have not cultivated saffron corms for this year," said the general secretary, Saffron Growers Association.
The National Saffron Mission was launched in 2010 to boost saffron production in the state. As part of the programme Rs. 3.76 billion programme, the state authorities plan to construct bore-wells to improve the irrigation facilities. The programme was launched after the Prime Minister's office took initiatives to boost the economy of Jammu and Kashmir.
Many of the saffron growers have taken loans from the banks in order to construct bore wells in their saffron fields. They had decided to repay the loan from the amount which they would receive under the NSM on annual basis. However, the failure on part of state government to release the amount for the past two years has landed these saffron growers in trouble.
"The failure of state government to facilitate construction of bore wells in saffron fields has spelt doom for the saffron growers. This has led to a negative publicity of NSM and the saffron growers have decided to adopt the traditional methods of cultivation of saffron corms. The saffron growers who had earmarked 30-40 kanals of land for construction of bore wells are in trouble with no solution in sight," said Majid.
The National Saffron Mission programme was initially launched in 2010 for three years. However, after repeated pleas of saffron growers the President of India extended the scheme for two more years. |
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