Saffron uproots poppies on farms in Afghanistan

James Palmer,

The San Francisco Chronicle Foreign Service
Sunday, March 1, 2009

Haji Abdul Ghayoum squats over a plant that pushes a magnificent rainbow of color up from cracked soil. The 42-year-old farmer runs his weathered hands through the green leaves and purple petals. Next, he fingers the red stigmas - thread-like filaments that are changing this part of the world.

In an effort to eradicate opium production, the Afghan government, international aid groups and private businesses are distributing saffron crocus bulbs to farmers in this region along the Iran border. The farmers say their new crop is better suited to their religious beliefs (Islam prohibits the use and sale of illicit drugs) and, ultimately, is more profitable.

Worldwide demand for Afghan saffron is rising, and the price has doubled in the past year to an average of $1,360 per pound - or roughly 38 times what poppy farmers in the southern part of the country earn.

Saffron has many uses

Saffron is coveted not only as a spice - it's one of the world's most expensive - but as a fabric dye and perfume. It also has medicinal potential - in recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has identified saffron as a cancer suppressant, fueling even more demand for the crop. As a result, poppy fields are starting to vanish in the northwest corner of Afghanistan, local officials say. "It's not prohibited in Islam and we can make more money," said Nasir Ahmed Ataie, 40, a former poppy farmer who switched to saffron six years ago. "We want to grow saffron - no one is forcing us."

Saffron farmers in Herat province are also receiving support from the United States. Since 2004, the U.S. Agency for International Development has provided bulbs, fertilizer and training to farmers in seven districts,

"Saffron is a small but highly lucrative alternative to poppy that we and others are happy to support," said Loren Stoddard, director of USAID's Alternative Development and Agriculture Office in Kabul. "We anticipate sales of saffron to grow significantly over the next several years and provide a high standard of living for those farmers that can gain the ability to produce this high-value product with exacting standards."

Mohammed Ismaeil Hedarzada, Herat's Agriculture Ministry director, estimates at least 1,000 provincial farmers harvested between 1,300 and 1,750 pounds of saffron in 2008. "Saffron production has increased every year in the past three years," he said. "Now (512) acres of land are used for growing saffron."

Herat's hot and dry summers are conducive for cultivating the saffron crocus, and the plant is capable of enduring the province's harsh winters. Saffron also typically produces greater yields and fetches more money per acre than poppies, farmers and distributors say.

The growers also say saffron doesn't require as much labor or water as poppy plants - a significant selling point in light of Afghanistan's continuing drought. Saffron fields are irrigated only once or twice during the winter gestation period. The saffron bulbs, which are fertile for up to seven years, are planted in August and September, and the flowers are harvested in November and December.

We can grow four times more saffron than poppies," Ataie said. "We've seen an increase for demand in markets outside of Afghanistan, along with an increase in prices every year since we started," said Ghafair Hamid Zaie, 24, whose family established Afghan Saffron in 2006, one of the nation's largest saffron exporters. Zaie attributes the growth to more farmers mastering growing and processing techniques. Pure saffron derives from the three red stigmas protruding from the center of the crocus, which has purple petals. Zaie says most farmers previously extracted stigmas with their bare hands and then dried filaments on sheets for days under the sun. That, Zaie said, led to contamination. "Pure saffron must be clean, or it will not get a very good price," he said.

Herat farmers now use latex gloves when handling stigmas and dry the filaments in a sifter over a wood-burning fire, the traditional Italian method. The dried saffron is then stored in plastic bags.

The Iran connection

Some Afghan farmers say they learned to grow saffron while taking refuge in Iran during the Soviet invasion of the 1980s. Ghayoum, for example, spent two decades cultivating saffron in Iran, the world's largest producer, before returning to Afghanistan in 2000. Today, he shares his expertise with 30 other farmers on nearly 500 acres they rent on the edge of Herat city. Ghayoum estimates he has trained 300 farmers in the past eight years, including 20 who once cultivated poppies.

"We are a Muslim country, so even the ground here prays to God," Ghayoum says. "If poppy seeds are planted, there will be no harvest for three years - you won't even to be able to grow wheat."

To be sure, the saffron boom hasn't slowed opium production elsewhere in Afghanistan, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Officials there say the poppy is still the crop of choice in seven of the country's 34 provinces, particularly in the south, where Taliban insurgents thrive.

Even with a slight decrease in poppy production last year, Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium. The Taliban, along with other militant groups and organized-crime rings, hauled in as much as $300 million in 2007 from opium trafficking, according to the U.N. office on drugs. Most of that money, it is widely recognized, is used to fund the insurgency against NATO troops.

But with more farmers being introduced to saffron, Zaie and others expect the crop to continue to gain popularity across Afghanistan. Since many farmers have requested bulbs, there is already a shortage.

In the meantime, Ataie says the collective he started six years ago with just two other farmers now numbers 600. "It's no sin to grow saffron," Ataie said. "The poppy is good for the smugglers, but it's no good for farmers."