Chandigarh : Visitors to CII Agro Tech 2012 at Parade Ground, Sector 17, Chandigarh are making a beeline to the stalls set up by Kashmiri farmers selling a number of fruits and dry fruits such as apple, saffron, walnuts, almonds etc. Mr. Charan Kamal Singh, Marketing Inspector at Horticulture Marketing and Planning, Govt of Kashmir shared, “Kashmir is the fruit bowl of earth, we have the best apricot, walnut, apple and saffron not only in India but also in the world. Saffron is a valuable medicinal plant and also used for flavor purposes.”
Mr. Abhdul Majeed Wani, General Secretary of the Saffron Association in Kashmir and a farmer by profession said, “Saffron is the only way of living for me and from one acre of land, I get 500 gram of saffron. I want to increase my acreage under saffron and hence want to spread awareness among people about Kashmiri saffron and let them know that our Saffron is the best in the world. Because of the lack of this knowledge, people buy saffron from other countries which is actually inferior to our Kashmiri Saffron.”
Talking about the problems being faced by them, Mr. Wani highlighted that, “Our country needs to restrict imports of Saffron so that the local industry can grow. For this, the customs duty on imported Saffron should be increased immediately and it is our request to the Government to do so immediately.”