Afghanistan Saffron cultivation, More Products, Better Position in the market.

Saffron the magical herb which is famous as red gold is well-known in international markets. Many years ago most of the farmers even weren’t familiar with its name, but in the past decade this herb was added to agricultural products of Afghanistan and today most of the farmers in provinces of Herat, Kandahar, Ghor, Baghlan and Kunduz grow saffron on hundred acres of their agricultural lands. Cultivation of this herb began from a small field in Herat province of Afghanistan a decade ago. And as officials of agricultural department in Herat say at the present time farmers in this province cultivate saffron on thousand acres of land yearly and their initiatives has caused the farmers in other provinces of Afghanistan to proceed saffron cultivation. According to the Speaker of the ministry of agriculture and livestock; “This act of farmers in Afghanistan has made us optimistic that saffron will take the place of poppy in the country in the near future. From one aspect the country will get rid of narcotics and from the other aspect the farmers and national traders in the country will gain great profit.”

Saffron cultivation in Afghanistan

Based on statistics presented by chamber of commerce andindustry of Afghanistan, only in Herat province the product of saffron reaches to more than two and half tons yearly and this amount has been increasing every year. Khan Jan Alokozay operative board in chamber of commerce says, “Although saffron can play a key role in the future economy of Afghanistan, but to increase this work the farmers of Afghanistan need help and the government of Afghanistan especially ministry of agriculture and livestock should have big schemes in this field.” Mr. Alokozay also emphasizes, “to increase the products of saffron yearly, ministry of agriculture should organize programs for the farmers on the method of cultivation and utilization of this product so that the farmers can learn how to cultivate this herb professionally and get more product.

 Yet Speaker in ministry of agriculture says that they have launched training programs of cultivation and protection of saffron for the farmers for two years now in Herat and Kunduz provinces and many of the farmers have been able to increase this product yield by passing the training sessions. These needs have been resolved by distributing saffron bulbs, different tools of cultivating saffron and passing training sessions. In the past years in addition to distributing tens of metric tons of saffron bulbs to the farmers in the provinces that cultivate this herb the method of cultivating saffron has become more professional. But this isn’t enough for agriculture ministry and struggles are in progress to help the farmers more.

Saffron crop in Afghanistan

On the other hand, officials in the ministry of agriculture say they have plans with coordination of commerce and industry ministry to train the farmers and traders in the field of packaging and processing of saffron so that they can pack the products of this herb with standard and offer them to the market. Although the government of Afghanistan hasn’t presented cultivation presentation of alternatives to the poppy to clearly become effective in struggle against narcotics, but the speaker in agriculture and livestock says they’ve proper plans with the ministry of counter narcotics of Afghanistan so that they can persuade the farmers to cultivate saffron in place of cultivating poppy from now onwards.