Efforts to enhance cultivation of Heeng and Saffron initiated
Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III – Science and Technology; Agriculture
In News:
To increase the production of Heeng and Saffron in India, the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT) and the Department of Agriculture, Government of Himachal Pradesh (HP), have forged strategic and implementation partnership based on their mutual strengths.
Key takeaways
This partnership is expected to provide immense benefits to HP by way of:
increased farm income
livelihood promotion
rural development.
A number of steps will be undertaken:
Transfer of innovations by means of capacity building
Skill development
Other extension activities.
Introduction of these crops will reduce the import.
CSIR-IHBT will:
provide technical know-how to the farmers
impart training to state agriculture department officers and farmers.
set up corm and seed production centres of Saffron and heeng, respectively.
IHBT has developed the production technology for Saffron and introduced its cultivation in non-traditional areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
It has also developed tissue-culture protocol for the production of disease-free saffron.
It has introducedsix accessions of heeng from Iran through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, and standardized its production protocols under Indian conditions.
Technical supervision of Saffron production areas shall also be undertaken.
Exposure visits of farmers will also be done.
A total of 750 acres of land will be covered under these crops in the state in the next five years.
A state-of-the-art tissue-culture lab will be established for large-scale production of quality planting material of these crops.
Important value additions
Saffron and Heeng (asafoetida) are the most valuable spices of the world and widely used in Indian cuisine since time immemorial.
In India, the annual demand for Saffron spice is 100 tons per year but its average production is about 6-7 tons per year.
Hence, a large amount of Saffron is being imported.
Similarly, there is no production of heeng in India and currently about 1200 tons of raw heeng worth Rs 600 crore is being imported from Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan.
Heeng
It is a perennial plant and it produces oleo-gum resin from the roots after five years of plantation.
It can be grown in unutilized sloppy land of cold desert regions.
Saffron
It is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the “saffron crocus”.
The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in food.
It has long been the world’s most costly spice by weight.
