Saffron cultivation hits highest record this year in Afghanistan

In addition to high pomegranate yields, saffron cultivation has hit the highest record to date this year. The Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock announced in the Afghanistan Times that saffron cultivation has been unprecedented in 2016.

The areas of cultivation increased by 250%, reaching 2,811 hectares this year. The average over the past 15 years was 1,020 hectares. Saffron cultivation has spread to 31 of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan – a few years ago saffron was cultivated in only one province.

The ministry said the increased cultivation was due to continued government technical, financial, and training support. The rise in pomegranate and saffron cultivation is a government effort to encourage farmers to grow legal crops instead of opium poppies.

The opening of the railway between Afghanistan and China is an example of the government efforts to support the export of crops. In May 2016 an Afghan delegation visited China to sign six agreements to boost business and diplomatic relations between the two countries. One of the agreements involved the export of saffron to China.

Afghan farmers began growing saffron in 2001. Earlier this year the Brussels-based International Taste and Quality Institute awarded Afghanistan’s saffron the title of ‘best saffron in the world’ for the third time.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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