Article

2019-07-08 Afghanistan

2.5 tons of Saffron bulbs distributed in Bamyan to promote Saffron cultivation in the province

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Posted by trailing wife 2019-07-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Furthermore, the ministry of agriculture said it has also distributed other required equipment and material to help the farmers cultivate Saffron.

Anyone wish to hazard a guess as to the re-purposing of the Saffron equipment ?

Posted by Besoeker 2019-07-08 00:08|| 2019-07-08 00:08|| Front Page Top

#2 Adventures in dual use farming implements.

Posted by M. Murcek 2019-07-08 06:56|| 2019-07-08 06:56|| Front Page Top

#3 Can you eat them?

Posted by Skidmark 2019-07-08 08:28|| 2019-07-08 08:28|| Front Page Top

#4 Saffron is a wonderful condiment. Mexican stuff that passes for it is horrible.

Posted by Chereting Pelosi1889 2019-07-08 08:40|| 2019-07-08 08:40|| Front Page Top

#5 Not the whole bulb, Skid. You'd get diarrhea or something. Saffron is used in very tiny quantities to add scent and a powerful flavor to certain dishes. It also base for coloring agent, orange or red. During severe heat, in a rose flavored syrup, with ice water, a pinch of it is divine.

It's supposed to be very warm, and can increase temperatures in cold weather so it's used in mountainous regions in tea and hot beverages. Some afghan hash is also scented with saffron and improves the 'honey and old paper taste' of raw or cut hash. Several medicines use saffron and derivatives too. Especially eastern medicines.

All of this should make it a good cash crop alternative to opium. Which is the idea really. We promised to source saffron from Afghanistan, if they would experiment with growing more of it instead of opium. Last year we signed an MOU to assist in plantation and training of cultivators if they would give up opium farming, while first your own 5th SFG and now New Zealand's NZDF reconstruction teams protected the farmers' cooperatives from taliban and Pak ISI affiliated opium cartels.

Soft power, sorta. Let's see.

Posted by Dron66046 2019-07-08 09:04|| 2019-07-08 09:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Sending pigs to ballet lessons will likely produce more positive results.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-07-08 09:08|| 2019-07-08 09:08|| Front Page Top

#7 If some kind soul could annihilate all muslims, he'd win an audience with GAWD and a shot of JD !

But until then, we've gotta live with them. And trust me, an educated (maybe even progressive) muslim is way safer than a ball scratching sasquatch spouting inshallah, rakibullah, nasrullilah whatever. It takes doing, and great patience. But leveraging historic linkages and a little bit of socialism, they can be made... safer. Like rottweilers. It's like therapy, and never foolproof. But there's no other choices.

Reform the islamic or kill him. One major factor in the lives of these people is, they don't give a damn about what Allah wants. They only want their children to grow in a peaceful land. There are thousands like this. And it's possible to leverage that need to usher in a democracy. Of course it would have been wonderful if the US had just let these guys kill each other, but ultimately Pakistan would expand on that with China not far behind.

Posted by Goober Noodleman6806 2019-07-08 09:31|| 2019-07-08 09:31|| Front Page Top

#8 And saffron is very expensive. One gram (0.04 ounces) will set you back about $20. Which, I suspect, puts it in the same ballpark as illegal drugs.

Posted by Bobby 2019-07-08 12:07|| 2019-07-08 12:07|| Front Page Top

#9 The spice called saffron is just the stamens plucked from the saffron crocus flower and dried. In Dron66046’s photo (thank you for that — I don’t know how to use images beyond those in the Rantburg collection, hence the opium poppy in the article), the red threads are the stamens. Note that there are only three stamens per flower; each bulb produces only one flower, and it takes about 150 flowers to produce a gram of the spice. Because it must be planted and collected by hand it is perfectly suited for a low-skilled, cheap labour environment like Afghanistan. The other commercial source for us Americans is Spain, according to my favourite spice supplier,though apparently Iran is a major source when it isn’t being sanctioned.

I suspect the required tools are cultivators and plows, or maybe just hoes, and whatever is used to spread manure — the bulbs need to be planted 3-5” deep and 6” apart in rich soil, so they can’t be simply broadcast on the surface of the soil like wheat or opium poppy seed.

Posted by trailing wife 2019-07-08 13:05|| 2019-07-08 13:05|| Front Page Top

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