Asafoetida

Subject – Agriculture

Context – As Himalayan farmers grow the country’s first asafoetida plants, changing weather threatens to play spoilsport

Concept –

It is a herbaceous plant of the umbelliferae family. It is a perennial plant whose oleo gum resin is extracted from its thick roots and rhizome.
The plant stores most of its nutrients inside its deep fleshy roots.
It is endemic to Iran and Afghanistan, which are also the main global suppliers of it.
It is very popular in India and is used in cooking.
Climatic Condition: It thrives in dry and cold desert conditions. The plant can withstand a maximum temperature between 35 and 40 degree, whereas during winters, it can survive in temperatures up to minus 4 degree.
During extreme weather, the plant can get dormant.
Regions with sandy soil, very little moisture and annual rainfall of not more than 200mm are considered conducive for heeng cultivation.
Properties: It has medicinal properties, including relief for digestive, spasmodic and stomach disorders, asthma and bronchitis.
- The herb is used to help with painful or excessive bleeding during menstruation and premature labour.

India’s Heeng Cultivation Project

Heeng is not cultivated in India. India imports raw heeng worth from Iran, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
In June 2020, the CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the agriculture ministry of Himachal Pradesh to jointly cultivate the heeng.
The agriculture ministry has identified four locations in the Lahul-Spiti valley and has distributed heeng seeds to seven farmers in the region.
However, the challenge for the scientists is that heeng seeds remain under a prolonged dormant phase and the rate of seed germination is just 1%.