Nestled beneath the dramatic snow-capped mountains of Indian-administered Kashmir is the town of Pampore.
Besides being situated in a remarkable spot, Pampore India is renowned for its saffron - an ingredient so precious it has been nicknamed "red gold".
Saffron, originating from the crocus plant, can cost up to $1,500 (£1,200) per kilogram.
Come October and November, the crocus plants bloom and dye the fields around the town a deep purple hue.
During the autumn months, the laborious process of gathering the fine red threads labeled stigmas is performed; subsequently, these are dried to produce saffron.
Approximately 90% of India's saffron harvesting comes from Kashmir, which has a long history of cultivating it.
Monis Mir is the latest in a line of four generations of his family to be involved in the saffron business.
He claims that it takes from 200,000 to 300,000 blossoms to produce a solitary kilogram of saffron. The process starts with the planting of corms, which resemble bulbs.
He explains that this is an industry that requires much labour, where every stage - from planting the corms, picking the blossoms, carefully taking off the red stigmas from the flowers, to the ultimate grading - is done meticulously by experienced workers who have been in the profession for decades.
According to Mr Mir, his fields have not been as fruitful as they used to be. He recollects when the crocus would bloom three to five times during the harvest period, but now that is only twice or thrice.
He attributes the more erratic patterns of rainfall and higher temperatures to causing the soil to become too dry for the delicate crocus plant.
Scientists studying saffron cultivation concur that conditions have become more challenging.
Dr Bashir Allie, heading the Saffron Research Station at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, states that climate change is a tangible thing that has caused chaos for saffron fields.
The precipitation and snow are no longer reliable and predictable. Regions that were previously abundant with saffron are not yielding as much as they did a decade ago.
In Indian-administered Kashmir, there has been a marked reduction over the years in the area used for saffron cultivation. In 1996, approximately 5,700 hectares were used for the crop but by 2020, this had declined to 1,120 hectares.
Apart from the new weather conditions, Mr Mir points to the growth of towns and villages that have encroached upon the saffron fields, as well as the lack of financing for irrigation and education for farmers, as the cause.
Dr Allie is making an effort to breed hardier crocus plants in order to revive the saffron farming industry.
He employs mutation breeding, a technique which utilizes radiation to disrupt the DNA of plants in order to create advantageous gene mutations that will enable them to thrive in different environments.
Dr Allie declares that the results have been promising.
Dr Allie is also providing farmers with guidance on how to increase the output of their lands. He is, for instance, advocating that they plant almond trees in conjunction with the saffron, as such trees produce shade and decrease the soil heat.
However, some are taking a more extreme approach to cultivating saffron.
Shailesh Modak was a software engineer based in Pune, located 1,400 miles south of Pampore, for a period of 13 years.
Although he was well remunerated, Mr. Modak revealed his discontentment with his job, resulting in his decision to depart in 2016.
He explains that he felt a need to take control of his own fate.
Initially, he attempted beekeeping, yet that didn't prove successful.
He expresses that many of his staff were subjected to bee stings daily, and transportation was becoming a challenge. automation is being developed
The development of additional business automation technology is underway.
He decided to take the risk of producing saffron, hoping that he could cultivate crocus plants in a shipping container.
In order to satisfy the special requirements of the crocus plant, an air conditioning and circulation system was installed in the container. Additionally, temperature, humidity, CO2 and light levels were continuously being monitored using sensors.
The plants are grown in tubes that provide moisture and nutrients, instead of soil.
Mr Modak created software enabling the circumstances to be regulated remotely from his phone.
He commented that what posed the biggest difficulty with agriculture was the reliance on climate, explaining that crop failure can occur when climate changes. To combat this, he opted to use hydroponics, a practice of cultivating plants without soil.
Last year, he allocated half of the container to saffron, yielding 700g. This year, the entire container is devoted to the production of this spice.
He states that they are in the process of testing to figure out how to create a suitable environment for saffron cultivation.
In Pampore, Dr Allie has developed a method by which crocus is grown indoors during a certain period of time.
Corms are taken out of the ground with care and been grown indoors for a period of three months before they are replanted outdoors close to the time of harvest.
Some farmers have discovered that this is an effective approach for safeguarding the fragile crop and increasing output.
At first, Abdul Majeed Wani, a saffron farmer from Kashmir, was doubtful regarding the prospects of saffron cultivation in plastic trays.
The venture has been successful, with the crop maintaining its quality and far exceeding that of outdoor-grown saffron.
In contrast, other farmers state that the system is too unreliable for the amount of extra labor needed.
Irshad Ahmed, a saffron farmer, attempted to grow his corms indoors in 2021 and 2022, but both times the efforts proved fruitless. "I think it's pointless," he mentions.
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