Where is the introduction of Asafoetida cultivation for the first time in India?

For the first time, Asafoetida cultivation has been started in India. Do you know where asafoetida is being cultivated in India? Let's study about it and asafoetida through this article.

An integral part of Indian cuisine and natural medicine, asafoetida is extracted from the fleshy roots of Ferula Assa-fossetida as allo-gum resin.

Why the hell

CSIR constituent laboratory, the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, has made history by introducing asafetida cultivation in the Himalayan region of India for the first time.

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research- Scientists of Himalayan Bioresource Institute located in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh announced that they have planted 800 plants of ferula asafoetida in the cold desert region of Lahaul and Spiti. This has brought a historic change in the farming methods of the farmers.

Due to this change the farmers here have now adopted asafetida cultivation with the aim of making good use of the largely deserted land under cold desert conditions. CSIR-IHBT developed asafetida seeds and farming techniques for this. The trial of growing ferula asafoetida in India can help the country's foodies taste the spices grown in their home country.

 Let us know about CSIR-IHBT efforts in Asafoetida cultivation-

• CSIR-IHBT started using about six bunches of Asafoetida seeds brought from Iran through CSIR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, in October 2018 with the aim of starting asafetida cultivation in India.

• On October 15, 2020, the director of CSIR-IHBT, Dr. Sanjay Kumar planted the first plant of the hinge in a farmer's farm in Quarrying village of Lahaul Valley.

• ICAR-NBPGR subsequently confirmed that this was the first attempt in the country to use asafoetida, which is ferula assa-photida, in the first 30 years.

• CSIR-IHBT has grown asafetida plants under the supervision of NBPGR at the Center for High-Altitude Biology (CeHAB) Ribling, Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.

• Cold and dry conditions are considered favorable for growing asafetida plant and it takes about 5 years for the resin named olio-gum to grow in its roots. For this reason, the cold desert region of Himachal Pradesh of India is considered suitable for this.

 From where does India import hing mostly?

According to Sanjay Kumar, director, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, "India imports 1,540 tonnes of raw asafoetida annually from Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan and spends around Rs 942 crore per year on it. So it is important for India to be self-sufficient in production.

 Let's know Asafoetida

• Asafoetida is considered to be one of the major spices and is a spice crop of high value in India. It is a major spice of Indian kitchen.

• It is obtained from a plant called ferula asa-photida. Raw asafoetida or asafoetida is extracted from the fleshy roots of the ferula asa-photida as olio-gum resin.

• Cold and dry conditions are considered favorable for asafoetida plant or crop.

• About 130 species of ferula are found in the world, but ferula asa-photida is used to produce economically important asafoetida.

• Asafoetida Kabuli white (milky white asafoetida) and asafoetida red (red asafotida) are two types of resin available in the market. White or yellow variety of asafoetida is soluble in water while dark or black variety of asafoetida is soluble in oil.

According to CJ Shankar of Madurai producer PC Perungayam, commercially sold asafoetida is mixed with wheat flour and gum arabic to cure the pungent taste of the resin. “Adding additives according to usage helps in the regularization of asafoetida. For example, as used in ethics or medicines, the use of asafoetida and other substances differs only.

PC Perungayam was started in 1956 and has branches in Kerala and Karnataka. It is one of the many Indian family-run systems that specialized in processing this spice.

There is no doubt that with the introduction of expensive spices asafetida cultivation started in India, India will move towards self-sufficiency and new options will be opened.