Photos: Climate change ravages Kashmir's 'red gold' saffron crop

On sweeping fields once blanketed in lush purple, a thin and bedraggled crop of flowers is all farmers in Indian-administered Kashmir's saffron-growing region Pampore have to show for this year's harvest.

Dry conditions blamed on climate change have seen yields of the world's most expensive spice halved in the past two decades, threatening the future of a cash crop that has brought wealth to the region for 2,500 years.

"These fields used to be like goldmines," said Abdul Ahad Mir in Pampore, just south of Indian-administered Kashmir's main city Srinagar.

Saffron has long thrived there, and Mir's family was reared in the delicate work of plucking the lucrative but tiny crimson threads from purple crocus flowers.

Warming temperatures caused by climate change have made rainfall erratic, depleting the thirsty saffron fields of water.

It takes around 160,000 flowers to yield one kilogram of the precious spice, which will sell for around $1,350 in local markets.

But official figures show that harvests of the so-called "red gold" were just 1.4 kilograms per hectare in 2018 - half the figure recorded in 1998.

The harvest season - which lasts for just two weeks at the end of autumn - has also been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Historians say saffron has been cultivated in Kashmir since at least 500 BC.

Locally the spice is added to traditional dishes and used as an ingredient in Kehwa, a sweet drink served during special occasions such as marriages.

Elsewhere in the world, it is prized for its use in cooking and cosmetics and can fetch prices of more than $10,000 per kilogram on the international market.

Nearly 90 percent of the world's saffron is grown in Iran, but experts consider Kashmir's crop to be superior for its deep red colour and distinct aroma.