History of Saffronthe word saffron goes as back as 10000 years, saffron is said to be derived from the word “zarparan” in Dari language which means that a flower its stigma is valued the same as gold like precious and expensive metal and this word had been turned in to saffron later on. It is said differently in many languages in Pashto and Arabic it is pronounced as “Zaferan”, in Farsi and Turkish it is pronounce as “Zefrun”, in English Saffron, in Spanish “Azafran” and French “Safrane”. Experts says that saffron has long been grown in Greece, Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran, and it has spread from far north up to far east of India, China, from West up to Spain. The old Khorasan part of which consisted of the today’s Afghanistan, Iran and according to analyst’s saffron has been grown in Afghanistan about 2000 years back. 80 years ago some farmers in Herat had grown saffron and some 30 years back saffron has been grown by the agriculture directorate of Herat for trial purpose, but saffron was sow mainly when the refugees from Iran returned to Afghanistan in the year of 1991, who had previously worked in saffron fields in Iran brought back with them saffron corns, Saffron as planted in Pashtoon Zarghoon and Ghoryan district of Herat province. In 1998 some NGO’s established saffron trials with local farmers in semi-arid villages of Pashtoon Zarghon district of Herat province, by 2007 due to good results and high returns more than 1300 farmers are now growing saffron in this district, as a result from 2002 the ministry of Agriculture and some NGO’s began to distribute saffron corms to farmers and other saffron growers in the provinces of Herat, Mazar-i Sharif, Baghlan, Kabul, Wardak, Bamyan, Logar, and it is said to be tested and grown in about 26 provinces throughout Afghanistan. |