Srinagar- Kashmir’s world-renowned saffron industry is facing one of its worst crises in decades, with growers in Pampore — famously known as the “Saffron Bowl of Kashmir” — reporting a staggering 90 per cent drop in production this season.

Farmers say the crop, once the pride of the Valley and a centuries-old symbol of its cultural and economic identity, is now on the verge of extinction unless the government steps in with immediate and decisive intervention.

“This year the corms haven’t sprouted properly at all,” said Abdul Majeed Wani, president of the Saffron Growers Association J&K. “Production is hardly 15 per cent — not even half of last year’s, which itself was barely 30 per cent of normal. Each year it’s declining, and the government doesn’t seem serious about saving this secto

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