October 21, 2020: Hing or asafoetida is a key part of the cuisine in many parts of India, but so far, it has had to be imported from countries like Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan, because it was never grown locally.
But now, scientists from the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have planted hing saplings in Himachal Pradesh, in the hope that cultivation of the spice will become a common practice in India.
Shekhar Mande, director-general of the CSIR, told ThePrint that, historically, asafoetida has been cultivated in cold desert regions of Afghanistan and Iran.
Even though India consumes 40 per cent of the world’s hing, no attempt had been made to start its cultivation locally. However, since 2016, Sanjay Kumar, director of CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) in Palampur, has been working on growing asafoetida locally.
A staple ingredient
Hing is an indispensable ingredient in cultures that discourage the use of garlic and onions in their foods. It has a strong, pungent odour, but a pinch of the spice can bring out the savoury flavour, especially in vegetarian dishes.
An NPR article points out that hing also has many traditional medicinal uses in India and beyond — in India, it is believed to help with everything from kidney stones to bronchitis; in Afghanistan, it’s thought to cure whooping cough and ulcers; while in Egypt, it’s considered a diuretic.
And because it’s a sought-after commodity in India, 100 grams of hing can cost anywhere between Rs 300 to Rs 1,000 depending on the quality and origin of the product.
“India imports nearly 1,200 tonnes of ferula asafoetida, amounting to nearly US $130 million every year,” Kumar told ThePrint. “That is a huge amount to pay for just one spice.”
Moreover, there have been many times when war and strife has prevented Iran and Afghanistan from exporting hing.
“Hing from Kabul has become part of the tradition, no one thought about cultivating it in India. Several people in India claim that we do have ferula species in India — but those are not the real varieties. In the last 30 years, no one has imported hing seeds into this country,” Kumar said.
Teaching farmers in Lahaul-Spiti
Kumar pointed out that Himachal’s Lahaul and Spiti district is also a cold desert with climate similar to Afghanistan, making it ideal for hing cultivation. The CSIR team has started the project on about 500 hectares of land, but it will take four to five years before the homegrown hing achieves the same quality as what is imported from Iran or Afghanistan.
If the pilot is successful, the scientists want to expand the cultivation to Ladakh, parts of Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh.
Kumar and his fellow scientists are working closely with government officials of Himachal Pradesh to train the local farmers about the correct way to cultivate the spice.
“There is no scientific literature available on how to grow asafoetida. So, we developed the agrotechnology of this plant — we know precisely how this plant is germinated, and how it should be transplanted. We conducted training programmes for the farmers and state officials,” Sanjay Kumar said.
He explained that the plant can only be seen above the surface for one or two months, after which it gets buried under snowfall, and goes into a state of hibernation.
“At this point, from past experience with other types of cultivation, we know that farmers are likely to become impatient. They might start digging to check, but once the plant gets disturbed, the quality of the hing will not be good. We have to make sure farmers understand this,” he said.
Apart from this, farmers are also being trained on how to irrigate the plant, which mostly survives on the moisture from melting snow. Farmers are also being discouraged from using chemical fertilisers, and being asked to only work with animal dung.
Using funds provided by the state government to the tune of Rs 4 crore, IHBT has set up a tissue culture lab that can quickly grow lakhs of saplings. This way, eventually, India will not even need to import asafoetida seeds from other countries, Kumar said.
Source: The Print
