Oct 21, 2020
Indian cuisine is never complete without Heeng (asafoetida), but one of the most valuable spices of the world could not take its root, in the country till last week when it was taken up for cultivation for the first time by farmers of the remote Lahaul valley in Himachal Pradesh with the help of agro-technology developed by a Palampur-based CSIR institution.
Heeng is a high-value spice crop and one of the top condiments and in India which last year imported about 1500 tonnes of raw asafoetida from Afghanistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan and spent Rs. 942 crore. But importantly the first seedling of asafoetida was planted in village Kwaring of Lahaul valley on October 15 to mark initiation of its cultivation in India.
Since lack of planting material of Ferula asafoetida plants in India was a major bottleneck in the cultivation of this crop, the CSIR’s Palampur-based Institute of Himalayan Bio resource Technology (IHBT) had brought in its seeds and developed its agro-technology.
Heeng prefers cold and dry conditions for its growth and can be cultivated in cold desert areas of Indian Himalayan region — Ladakh and certain areas of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh. The cultivation has the potential to change the economic condition of people in these areas.
Sanjay Kumar, director, CSIR-IHBT said, It’ll cost farmers nearly Rs. 3 lakh per hectares over the next five years and give them a net return of minimum Rs. 10 lakh from the fifth year onwards. We will in collaboration with the state government provide support to farmers with finance and technical know-how. It’ll be a game-changer for farmers in the cold desert region of the country.
The IHBT has introduced six accessions of Heeng from Iran through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, and standardized its production protocols under Indian conditions. It’s a perennial plant and it produces oleo-gum resin from the roots after five years of plantation. It can be grown in unutilized sloppy land of the cold desert region. Raw asafoetida is extracted from the fleshy roots of Ferula asafoetida as an oleo-gum resin.
IHBT has organized training programs on asafoetida cultivation and laid out demonstration plots in villages of Madgran, Beeling, and Keylong in Lahaul valley of Himachal Pradesh for the establishment of the seed production chain and its cultivation at a commercial scale.
Kumar said, “It will be cultivated in a staggered manner so that farmers in certain areas would start getting its benefit from fifth years onward before its expansion to more and more areas in Himachal Pradesh and subsequently in cold desert areas of other Himalayan states/UT. Although, there are about 130 species of Ferula found in the world, but only Ferula asafoetida is the economically important species used for the production of Heeng.
In India, we do not have Ferula asafoetida. Other species are reported from the western Himalaya (Chamba, HP), and from Kashmir and Ladakh. But, these are not the species that yield asafoetida,” said Kumar.