Jammu, Feb. 24 -- On a cold February morning in this south Kashmir town, saffron farmer Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, 38, was setting out on a 30-km drive to the capital city of Srinagar. He, and two other farmers riding with him, were meeting officials of the agriculture department to press for a Geographic Indication (GI) tag for Kashmiri saffron.
Hit by climate change, cheaper Iranian imports, poor irrigation and outdated farming and post-harvest practices, the production of Kashmiri saffron has declined by 65% over 22 years to 2018-from 16 metric tonnes to 5.6 metric tonnes, as per the records of the Department of Agriculture Kashmir (See Table) accessed by IndiaSpend.
Bhat and his fellow farmers are hopeful that a GI tag will save the Kashmiri...