I t is the usual way of intermittently interacting with cross sections of the society that the Prime Minister shares important information and gets back necessary and valuable inputs as well. On Monday, while releasing the 9th instalment of financial benefit of Rs.19500 crore to nearly 10 crore farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kissan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojna via video conferencing , he interacted with farmers which included a Kashmiri Saffron grower also and said that the Government wanted ”fragrance of Jammu and Kashmir saffron to spread across the country”. It is not only the special interest usually taken in Jammu and Kashmir by the Prime Minister in respect of various developmental projects but his vision that the UT may come out from the static circle of violence, corruption, underperformance in various sectors and unresponsive governance for quite many past years in a row to emerge as a performing UT especially on economic front. Verily, therefore, the decision of the Government to cause the world famous saffron of Jammu and Kashmir to be sold through National Agriculture Cooperating Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) is aimed at ensuring direct benefit reached to the saffron growers. The step has been taken to not only bail out the UT saffron from various problems especially in marketability and the high level of competition faced from growers of the aromatic stuff at the international market but to boost its sale through the NAFED and ensure timely realising of proceeds thereof and resultant benefit direct to the producers. Not only this, needless to add, the Government by allotting the GI tag to saffron has changed the entire scenario of its marketing altogether. The saffron which is also called Kong, Kum kum, Kesar and Lohit , needless to add, is not only used for culinary purposes but for medicinal uses also . Its special aroma and the properties of retaining its colour, fragrance and texture for years together bestows upon it a particular speciality. Not only is it grown in Kashmir valley but also in Kishtwar in Jammu region , both being of the same quality and properties. Hence, growers of saffron of the UT were going to be vastly benefitted. One of the saffron growers with whom the PM interacted , while being all praises for the Prime Minister, admitted that saffron production had taken a hit in the last few years and was not fetching much returns but with governmental intervention, like Saffron Mission etc the farming has been revived. Not only had the saffron growers problems of absence of timely irrigation facilities but that of low yield too . Both the issues reportedly stand vastly addressed. The said saffron grower acknowledged the PM’s efforts for doubling income of saffron farmers in 2021 ”much before the target of 2022 set by him”. It is to be believed that due to the efforts of the Government in providing a need based support base, while a kilo of saffron fetched Rs.90,000 to Rs.1 lakh some time back but with the creation of saffron park and other measures by the Government , the stuff was now yielding Rs.2.25 lakh to Rs 2.3 lakh per kilogram. It can thus be deduced that only by old conventional ways of looking at the most important sector of the economy- the agriculture, there cannot be any perceptible improvement in production and pricing to take place but by employing newer and innovative ways only can agricultural production keep on increasing and result in increasing the money incomes of the farmers as well. Any move to oppose, such innovations and new ways as is being practiced successfully by almost all those countries who have shown exceptional results in farm produce and output costs, would prove retrogressive and not in the interests of the farmers. Saffron is such an agricultural produce which gives a special niche to Jammu and Kashmir across the country and even abroad, the latest move in respect of its marketability was going to make a lot of difference to the growers , financially and otherwise.
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