Srinagar, Sept. 14 -- By Malik Daniyal

Drive through Pampore in October and you will see the karewas turning violet, thousands of saffron corms pushing purple flowers through soil that has grown this same crop since before the Mughals arrived.

You will also see something else if you look past the flowers: irrigation pipes half-buried in weeds, sprinkler heads that haven't turned in years, borewells that farmers can point to and name by the year they were promised.

The saffron fields of Pampore hold both halves of Kashmir's agricultural story at once.

One half is a crop worth more than gold by weight, protected since 2020 by a Geographical Indication tag that certifies its longer stigma and its higher concentration of crocin, the compo...