Experiments to cultivate heeng in India bear fruit, plants flower for the first time

Experiments by the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) to cultivate asafoetida, known locally as heeng, have borne fruit, with the plant flowering in India for the first time.

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The project was launched in the remote Lahaul and Spiti region of Himachal Pradesh by CSIR’s Palampur-based Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), in 2020, and a Heeng Seed Production Centre had been established in February.

The plant requires cold and dry conditions for its growth and it takes approximately five years for the production of oleo-gum resin in its roots, from which edible heeng, widely used in cuisines and also for medicinal purposes, is extracted.

“Ongoing research and development aims to establish a sustainable seed cycle and ensure long-term cultivation success in cold desert regions. This will go a long way in reducing our import dependence on this high-value spice, the CSIR said on Monday while terming the process as a breakthrough for indigenous farming.

Asafoetida is one of the top condiments and a high-value spice crop. India imports about 1,200 tonnes of raw asafoetida annually from Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan, spending approximately USD 100 million annually.

IHBT had encouraged farmers in the Lahaul valley to take up cultivation of asafoetida to utilise vast expanses of waste land in the cold desert conditions of the region. IHBT brought in seeds of asafoetida and developed its agro-technology.

Lack of planting material of ‘Ferula assa-foetida’ plants in India was a major bottleneck in cultivation of this crop. The first seedling of asafoetida was planted by IHBT in October 2020 on a farmer’s field at Kwaring village of the Lahaul valley to mark the initiation of asafoetida cultivation in India.

Since asafoetida is a major condiment in Indian cuisines, IHBT made relentless efforts for introduction of this important crop in the country. The institute introduced six accessions of seeds from Iran through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi.

Raw asafoetida is extracted from the fleshy roots of Ferula assa-foetida. Although there are about 130 species of Ferula found in the world, only Ferula assa-foetida, an economically important species, is used for the production of asafoetida.

In India, Ferula assa-foetida was not grown, but other species—Ferula jaeschkeana is reported from the Himachal’s Chamba region and Ferula narthex from Kashmir and Ladakh, which are not the species that yield the asafoetida spice.