Peshawar   -   Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has directed the Agriculture Department to collect detailed data of agricultural lands across the province and prepare for saffron cultivation on suitable lands by the upcoming season.

Yar Muhammad Khan Niazi, the Chief Minister’s Focal Person for Digital Media, reported that the pilot saffron planting by the KP Agriculture Department has shown promising results.

With seed and input costs around Rs3.2 million per acre, the tentative annual return is estimated at about Rs6.8 million. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 127,950 acres of potential saffron-growing area, capable of producing 255 tons of stigma, which could generate an annual economic return of billions of rupees. The investment in saffron farming in KP will be phased over short (4 years), medium (7 years), and long-term (10 years) periods. Over a decade, this initiative could create around 3.6 million direct jobs, employing 4 labourers per kanal.

The Chief Minister emphasised the need for the effective utilisation of available agricultural land to make it a significant source of income for the provincial government.

He instructed the Agriculture Department to undertake saffron cultivation directly, rather than leasing the lands, while also encouraging farmers to cultivate saffron on suitable lands.