Enhancing saffron (Crocus sativus) productivity by land configuration and corm intensity manipulation under Kashmir condition

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.), is the costliest spice of the world valued for its red colored pungent stigmas. The major compounds in saffron are crocetin and crocetin esters, both responsible for its colouring strength, picrocrocin for bitter taste and safranal for aroma (Lozano et al. 1999, Carmona et al. 2006). These are very important ingredients in food, medicinal and pharmaceutical industries as colouring, flavouring and therapeutic agent. It is mainly cultivated in Iran, India, Spain and Greece. Iran and Spain are the major producers accounting more than 80% world production with production of 300 MT annually (Emam et al. 2012). Though, India occupies the 2nd largest area of 3785 ha but the production is only 9.46 MT with an average productivity of 2.50 kg/ha (Nehvi 2010). The Kashmiri saffron is famous worldwide owing to high crocin content, aroma and identified as globally important agricultural heritage system by the FAO, Rome, Italy. Saffron is grown on Karewa area where optimal conditions are available for good growth and flower production characterized by water scarcity, cold winter and warm dry summer. Water scarcity during active growth stage affects saffron yield and corm multiplication adversely and an increase in saffron yield up to 40% reported with application of pre and post flowering irrigation (Nehvi et al. 2004). Irrigation application is the most important factor for flowering emergence and has significant impact in improving saffron yield and corm production as compared with dryland farming (Behdani et al. 2008, Zohan et al. 2006). Saffron corm are planted in different land configurations as in flat beds, ridge methods in Iran and Afghanistan, furrow method in Spain, while it is grown in uneven raised beds in Kashmir. Saffron is perennial geophyte crop and yield varies in consecutive years due to varied population of productive and unproductive daughter corms. Rainfed cultivation, poor manures and fertilizers application, low corm intensity with ungraded corms, corm rot, rodents, and long planting cycles of 10 to 15 years are major factors for low productivity in Kashmir. Owing to these factors both area and production in J and K has come down from 5707 ha area in 1996-97 to 3785 ha during 2009-10 and the production from 15.95 MT to just 9.46 MT. The leading saffron growing countries like Iran, Spain and Greece with intensive production technologies are able to achieve higher productivity (4-8 kg/ha) which is much higher than Kashmir productivity of 2.5 kg/ha (Kumar and Sharma 2017). There is no systemic work carried out on intensive production technology in saffron particularly under irrigated Karewa condition of Kashmir Himalaya. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to standardize land configurations and corm intensities to enhance saffron productivity. The study was conducted at experimental field of ICARCITH, Srinagar during 2010-15. The soil were clay loam to silt clay with pH 6.81 and EC 0.36 d/m. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with factorial arrangement having 3 replications including different land configurations (P), i.e. P1-ridge and furrow, P2-raised bed and P3-flat bed, while corm intensities per ha (C) were C1-5 lakh, C2-10 lakh, and C3-15 lakh. In ridge and furrow method distance between two ridges was 50 cm and ridge height was 25 cm. The sizes of raised and flat beds were 1.5 × 10 m2 with 20 cm height and 1.5 × 10 m2, respectively. Healthy and uniform corms more than 8 to 10 g size were planted at the depth of 20 cm in each land configuration as per the treatment corm intensity. Before planting, corms were treated with carbendazim 0.2% for corm rot management. Four to six irrigations were applied uniformly from August to March depending upon weather condition (Table 1) through sprinkler irrigation system. Recommended dose of fertilizers, i.e. 25 t FYM, N (90 kg/ha), P2O5 (100 kg/ha) and K2O (120 kg/ha) were applied. Corms were harvested at the end of five year crop cycle. The data recorded on 1Scientist (Horticulture-Floriculture) (e mail: rameshflori@ gmail.com), Present address: ICAR-Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Beechwal, Bikaner, Rajasthan 334 006. 2Principal Scientist (Horticulture) (e mail: ommandi@yahoo.co.in), ICARCITH, Srinagar.