Saffron Crop

About Saffron Crop: 

• It is one of the costliest herbal spices across the globe and popularly known as Red Gold or the Golden Condiment.
• The commercial part of Saffron is Stigma, which is the female part of flower also termed as Saffron filament or Saffron thread or Saffron stigmata.
• The seeds of Saffron are called corms or bulbs, and Saffron plant regenerates from the vegetative multiplication of its underground corms.
• It contains crocin, picrocrocin and saffranal which are very important constituents for both medicinal and aesthetic purposes.
• Distribution: The saffron plant is native to Greece and Asia Minor, but it is now cultivated in many parts of Europe (especially Italy, France, and Spain), China, and India.
• In India around 90% of saffron production comes from Kashmir, where it has been grown for centuries.
• Required Climatic conditions
  • It grows at an elevation of 1,500-2,000 m above mean sea level.
  • Saffron cultivation requires explicit climatic conditions with temperatures ranging from not more than 35oC or 40oC in the summer to about -15oC or -20oC in the winter.
  • It can be grown in dry, moderate and continental climate types.
  • Soil: It thrives on loamy, sandy, and calcareous soils.
  • Saffron grows best on acidic soil. It thrives well when the soil pH is 5.5 to 8.5

Q1: What is Vegetative reproduction?

It is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment of the parent plant or grows from a specialized reproductive structure (such as a stolon, rhizome, tuber, corm, or bulb).

Source: Losing spice: Kashmir’s prized saffron crop hit by dry spells