Red gold is placed in the city instead of the villages

Red gold is placed in the city instead of the villages

While saffron is produced in 200-300 km of villages in Khorasan Razavi and South Khorasan provinces, due to the shortage of workers, part of this crop remains on the ground and is not harvested. If harvested, it will remain in the hands of farmers due to the lack of workers, and it will have to be moved to the outskirts of cities for processing.

Seyed Ali Hosseini, a member of the National Saffron Council, said: Lack of manpower has caused red gold to face losses due to lack of manpower, and the harvest of this crop per hectare has decreased by one kilogram to four kilograms, which is one kilogram. The reason for the lack of farmers to pick crops from the land and also the lack of manpower for processing turns into waste.

He added: Despite the fact that the area under saffron cultivation has increased, this crop has faced a decrease in yield and an increase in waste because farmers are not able to harvest saffron flowers within two days, so part of the saffron flower remains in the ground and disappears.

Hosseini added: We are facing a shortage of labor in the villages for processing operations, which has caused saffron flowers to be transferred to the outskirts of cities in unfavorable conditions and processed. During the transfer of saffron from the countryside to the outskirts of cities, saffron stalks break In some cases, up to one third of saffron yield is converted into waste.

The vice-president of the South Khorasan Saffron Producers and Exporters Association lamented that we have not been able to motivate the labor force to remain in the villages, which is a threat to the agricultural sector.