Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Aug 31: Delay in the completion of construction work of a hi-tech spice park in South Kashmir’s Pampore town of Pulwama district has evoked a strong resentment from the saffron growers as they were eyeing better marketing facilities for the precious crop.
Experts said that non-availability of hi tech spice park forced traders, who sell their produce to international markets, to get their produce tested either at RAL Jammu or in Delhi. They said that availability of spice park would give a boom to the saffron crop by providing marketing and quality control facilities to the growers.
The growers said that the construction of the spice park was a welcome step but delay in completion of construction work was dampening enthusiasm of the growers. “The Park would have put a check on the sale of spurious saffron, which had deteriorated the Kashmiri brand. It will also expose the growers to the international markets and thus remove the role of intermediator who often exploits the growers by paying less amount of money,” Abdul Majid, a saffron grower, said.
Construction of the spice park was one of the measures that was suggested to give a boost to the crop under ambitious Rs. 400 crore National Saffron Mission Scheme (NSMS) of the Government. Mission Director, Altaf Aijaz Andrabi when contacted said that the project was in the final stage and the unrest of 2016 delayed the completion of construction work.
“The project would have been completed last year but unrest reduced the pace of construction. We are in the final stage and the park will be thrown open next month,” he said. While explaining the importance of the spice park, he said with the total project cost of Rs 27 crores, the park will have common facility infrastructure for sorting, grading, packing, quality control lab, e-auction center, garbage or waste utilization among other latest facilities.
“It is also proposed to create a branding of Kashmir Saffron. The quality control laboratory will issue qualify certificate of various grades, for which a certification authority will be designated by the State Government,” the Director said. He added that this would significantly discourage adulteration and sale of low-grade Saffron being sold in the name of Kashmir Saffron.
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