Climate plays a very important role in farming. Due to the recent effects of global warming, Climate change is happening everywhere. Some people don't believe the effects of Global warming but we are able to see the changes in many places. Some people who did not believe it earlier are now starting to believe this after seeing the effects.
Some regular crops are now having problems with yield because of the climate change. One such crop is the Saffron cultivating in Kashmir. People are slowly moving towards indoor farming to make use of a contained environment for farming.
High income generating Saffron
Currently Kashmir is second largest producer of Saffron and the cost of Saffron is also very high. The cost is close to 4000 dollars per Kg which is huge but in order to cultivate that much quality, it takes a lot of effort and that is one of the primary reasons why the cost is that much. This high income generating crop is also on high demand in many places and that's why people are create fake Saffron too.
Some families are traditionally doing this in Kashmir for multiple generations. Even though they are find it hard to continue doing this, because of the demand they are somehow making it happen. The cultivation is a labor intensive task and that's another reason why it is very costly.
Shifting to Indoor
We might have seen many videos online where people from other places are also trying to cultivate Saffron successfully from an Indoor setup. It is not people who are from other places doing it but people from Kashmir itself is planning on doing this indoor instead of doing it on the fields. They say the climate is intense and it is no longer supportive for Saffron cultivation.
Rapid urbanization is also another reason why the cultivation is reducing in many places. The erratic rainfall and raise in temperature is creating problems for Saffron cultivation in many well known places in Kashmir. About 90 percent of Saffron cultivation in India is happening in Kashmir. Every year the production is slowly coming down and that's why the farmers are looking forward to cultivate saffron in an Indoor environment.
Managing the costs indoor
Today because of the high demand, it is possible to manage to cost of indoor production. The first thing is maintaining the temperature. Doing an indoor setup and maintaining the cost for the indoor production is something that is manageable because of the high price per Kg.
Not just Kashmir, people from other places are also planning to cultivate Saffron Indoor and have been doing this successfully. They say it is a profitable business and they are able to see a decent profit after managing the heavy maintenance cost. I think places that has climate similar to Kashmir should think about cultivating Saffron so that the demand is reduced and price might come down.
If you like what I'm doing on Hive, you can vote me as a witness with the links below.
|
|
|
Posted Using INLEO