This Is For The First Time Heeng Will Be Cultivated In India.

This Is For The First Time Heeng Will Be Cultivated In India.

 

Did you know the heeng in your kitchen is 100% imported from Iran or Afghanistan or Uzbekistan not even 1% cultivated in India? Heeng or asafoetida is very largely consumed in India but till now there was no cultivation of Heeng.

This is for the first time Heeng will be cultivated in India's Trans Himalayan Region. Since growing of Heeng will need a cold wheather condition such has Ladakh and Lahaul-Spiti. The CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur, has started cultivating heeng in this region for the first time in Indian history.

How Much Heeng India Needs

Due to zero cultivation of Heeng in India, our country was completly dependent on other countrys for import of Heeng. A country with all types of the climatic condition but when it came to Heeng cultivation it showed it graph zero.

India consumed about 50% of the world Heeng that is upto 1200 metric tonnes of raw heeng worth Rs 600 crore. Now you would be getting some idea why heeng costed more. 

Why It Took So Long.

CSIR-IHBT Director Dr Sanjay Kumar, initiated programm by planting heeng seedlings at Kwaring village in Lahaul and Spiti which is the cold dry district of Himachal Pradesh.

But Why this long it took?

• The first major issue was lack of seeds of Ferula assafoetida plants in India. Should be brought from Afganistan or other Heeng cultivating nations.
• The second reason was even thou seeds are brought from other countries it was not getting it could not grow in our climatic conditions.

To counter these problems relentless efforts made from CSIR-IHBT from 2016, after research this bottleneck was finally solved. 

How Do We Get Heeng?

Heeng or asafoetida can be only grown in a cold and dry place. It can be cultivated in snowfall region so Himalayan region opted for the cultivation of Heeng.

The sapling which has been cultivated now takes five years to give Heeng.

If your wondering is Heeng is fruit or flower, the answer is 'No' they are not both of them. It is, in fact, the root resin which gets formed into hard stone-like raw Heeng. Which then powdered to use in cooking or for any food industry.

What Progress Now

Dr Shekhar Mande, Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Delhi said " We have planted the saplings in about 5 hectares of land in Himachal Pradesh and we plan to scale up the production of heeng to planting it in at least 300 hectares of land in the next three years,"