Saffron, zafaran in Dari and Pashto, is the dried red stigma of the autumn-flowering saffron crocus, Crocus sativus. The plant produces no viable seed, so farmers grow it from corms, small bulb-like organs that are dug up, divided and replanted. Each flower holds only three stigmas, which must be separated by hand; more than 150,000 flowers are needed for a single kilogram.
Around Herat in western Afghanistan, close to Iran’s Khorasan, one of the world’s great saffron regions, farmers in districts such as Ghoryan and Pashtun Zarghun have eagerly taken up the crop, and test fields there have given notably high yields. Herat-Bastan saffron, sold only as whole threads, is prized for its strong colour, aroma and slightly bitter taste, which come from natural compounds called crocin, safranal and picrocrocin. It is one of three Afghan farm products protected as a geographical indication.