Saffron ‘a legendary crop’ – an overview

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) popularly known as “the golden condiment” is a legendary crop and regarded as an important component of our culturally rich heritage. Crocus sativus also known as Kum Kum or Kesar is a carmose triploid (2n=3x=24) sterile geophyte & is solely propagated by vegetative means through corms. The intensive cultivation and mono culturing of saffron crop in saffron growing belts of the valley and in Kishtwar together with continuous use of diseased material resulted in frequent occurrence of corm rot disease caused by pathogens viz; Rhizoctonia crocorum, Phoma crocoplila, Fusarium moniliforme var. intermedium non-sporulating basidiomycetous fungus, Macrophomina phaseolina, Fusarium oxysporum, f. sp. solani, F. pallidoroseum, F. equiseti, Mucor sp, Penicillium sp. and Sclerotium rolfsii. In Kashmir and Kishtwar, Fusarium oxysporum f. solani and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. gladioli are the most predominant pathogens which register corm rot incidence to the magnitude of 70–85% causing enormous losses. The protocol developed by Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Jammu and adopted by farmers in letter & spirit have increased the production from 2.0 to 3.5 – 4 Kg/ha. The capsule management to corm rot of saffron which includes size and weight of saffron corms(12-15g), incorporation of Trichoderma harzianum @ 1kg with 20kg well dried FYM/acre, treatment of corms with Bavistin@ 2g/lt of water, proper seed rate @ 60q/ha with row to row spacing 10cm with depth of 10 cm and light irrigation in September increases the productivity of the saffron. Saffron cultivation is on the verge of extinction due to unavailability of high yielding saffron cultivars, high cost of inputs, lack of mechanization, dry land farming, spreading inoculum of saffron corm rot, post harvest losses, poor market due to involvement of agents and middlemen and fields suitable for saffron cultivation rapidly coming under construction and factories, thus warrants and needs proper attention both at Srinagar and Kishtwar by the people involved in the saffron trade and the government.