When Matthew Roy left New Hampshire in 2020 to start a farm in southwest Nova Scotia, one of the new crops he focused on was saffron.
Posted at 8:19 a.m.
Hina Alam
The Canadian Press
This expensive spice, nicknamed red gold, is traditionally grown in Iran, India, Afghanistan, Spain and a handful of other countries.
“We decided to bring two new crops to Nova Scotia, especially with climate change,” Mr. Roy said recently from his Coastal Grove farm in Upper Port La Tour, Nova Scotia. The other new crop was tea.
“We knew it was going to be warmer here,” he said.
Mr. Roy indicated that the saffron bet had been rewarded with returns that surprised him. In 2021, he harvested 172 grams of this prized spice, and in 2022, this amount increased to 342 grams.
Extreme rains last summer and fall hurt the yield, which fell to 66 grams. On the Coastal Grove website, a one-gram container of certified organic Nova Scotia saffron sells for $49.99.
Margaret Skinner, a professor and researcher at the University of Vermont, studies the plant and works with Mr. Roy on his farm, which also grows vegetables and herbs. Although warming temperatures make Nova Scotia more hospitable to saffron, other climate effects, such as drought and flooding, could be harmful.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, it’s warmer in winter or hotter or drier or wetter in summer,’” she said.
“It’s more that we are facing extreme weather events. When we have a drought, it’s very dry for a long time. When it’s hot, it’s very hot for us. When it rains, it’s often a deluge. »
Adapting to changes
Navin Ramankutty, Canada Research Chair in Data Science for Sustainable Global Food Systems at the University of British Columbia, agreesme Skinner.
He pointed to similar issues in Canada, particularly the recent heat dome and flooding that affected British Columbia over the past two years.
“Farmers are adapting to this change,” he said. Maybe the crops that we’re currently growing in these places, we can’t continue to grow them. Perhaps farmers will turn to different crops, crops more suited to warmer climates. »
A 2022 study published in the Canadian Journal of Plant Sciences found that growing saffron in cold climates faces challenges because low soil temperatures hinder flowering, but it says good farming techniques could improve the results.
“Although there are indications that saffron yield is higher in climates with hot summers, autumn rains and cool winters, typical of the Mediterranean basin, saffron production in the colder climate of the Quebec, Canada and adjacent New England has been ongoing for five to ten years. »
A prized spice
Usually harvested from mid-October to mid-November, purple crocus flowers are picked by hand. The petals are separated – also by hand – and the three small, delicate stigmas are carefully isolated, then dried in the sun, becoming one of the most expensive and sought-after spices in the world.
Saffron is used in products including food, medicine and cosmetics. A kilo requires the stigmas of around 150,000 flowers and sells for up to $6,000.
Bashir Ahmad Allie, head of advanced research on saffron and spice seeds at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, is not surprised that some parts of Canada are capable of growing this sensitive spice, given the changing climate across the world.
He said he would like to collaborate with farmers here to understand how climate change is affecting the region and the growth of saffron. In Canada, the spice is now grown in parts of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
While saffron cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir is passed down from generation to generation, climate change is turning some young people away, Mr Allie said. Warming and unpredictable temperatures are forcing farmers to spend more time, money and effort without any guarantee of yield, he noted.
In the 1990s, Mr Allie said the region experienced a “uniform rain pattern” from May to October, but in recent years it has experienced snowfall, hail, flooding and unseasonably dry weather.
“Climate change is a reality. It is creating havoc for saffron, he argued. And that shocks us. »
