Jammu, Mar 31: Of the total 83.60 quintals of saffron produced during 2009-10 in J&K, 80 quintals have been produced in Pampore area of Kashmir Valley, and 3.60 quintals in the Kishtwar area of Jammu division. This information was given by the Minister for Agriculture,   Ghulam Hassan Mir while replying to a clubbed question by   Muhammad Yousuf Taing and   Vijay Bakaya in Legislative Council today.  The Minister said that the Saffron Development Project in a mission mode is for Rs 372.18 crore to be implemented over a period of 4 years, 2010-11 being the first year. 
 He said Rs. 288.06 crore shall be provided by the Centre in four years and Rs. 85.122 crore shall be the farmers share.  Mir  said to save the crop from the Corm Rot disease, farmers have been advised to adopt preventive measures like replanting health saffron corms on a four year rotation basis instead of eight to nine years and during the time of replanting the corms be treated with the recommended doses of fungicides.
 The Minister further informed the house that in order to strengthen quality control in saffron, a quality control laboratory is being set up under the Centrally Sponsored Mission ‘Economic Revival of J&K Saffron Sector’. Additional infrastructure facilities for Storage, grading and packing of saffron have also been conceived in this project in addition to the installation of SMS server and the establishment of an electronic auction and trading centre at Pampore.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 1 Apr 2011 00:00:00 IST