Vice Chancellor Jammu University, Prof Umesh Rai held an interaction with the Mr Aijaz Amhed a progressive farmer hailing from Balia village of Mandi Tehsil in Poonch and a team of researchers from the School of Biotechnology led by Prof Jyoti Vakhlu , who have taken the initiative to spread this famous spice to non-traditional cultivating areas. Prof Rai was appreciative of the farmer Mr. Aijaz Ahmed whose scientific temper and progressive attitude have led to the success of the current study. Prof Rai was of the opinion that a major research project in this regard should be submitted to various funding agencies so that this Pilot scale study, is extended to saffron production at the large scale in a harmonious exchange of two-way knowledge between the “Lab to Land and Land to Lab” programme.

He was of the opinion that as the present study has been conducted using organic fertilizers only there may be a case for standardizing the process and pitching it as organic saffron, produced without any fertilizers and or chemical biocides.He further suggested that it makes sense to adapt new technology that is not prohibitively costly,like hand tillers,that will free up more opportunities for the small farmers.This project is part of the efforts of the Jammu University to address local issues of the population and to give timely and opportune interventions. Prof Umesh Rai suggested that University of Jammu should play an important role in its quality assurance and marketing and that this project should be taken up in a transdiciplinary mode wherein faculty from Management and Social sciences etc should be included for benefit of students and society at large . It is pertinent to mention here that the team from the School of Biotechnology Jammu had started the project on extension of Saffron to non traditional areas, having conducive “pedoclimatic” conditions for saffron cultivation, and had identified and started field trials at a number of sites in the state. This initiative had encouraging results from many sites but the best results so far have come from Mandi area of Poonch. 

Saffron production/cultivation is being in introduced in many parts of the country where the spice is not grown traditionally, to meet the mammoth demand for the spice in the country. Due to a huge deficit in production and demand, pure saffron is hard to obtain and it has the dubious distinction of being the most adultrated comodity in the market. This project was undertaken with the long-term goal of plugging this deficit in supply chain by cultivating saffron in non traditional areas, utilizing biofertilizers native to the saffron growing areas,that were identified and isolated by the research team of Biotechnology over a long period of timeand, with a view to augment farmers income in these areas. The farmers in Mandi tehsil mainly cultivate maize which is high volume low value crop  and the introduction of saffron in the area which is a low-volume high-value crop is going to increase the farmers' income and finally lead to their economical upliftment. University of Jammu aspart of its social responsibility duty towards society intends to identify other non traditional areas and repeat this success story.