Asafoetida (Heeng) Cultivation

News: The first flowering and seed set of heeng at Palampur was reported on May 28, 2025, by CSIR, showing heeng can indeed be successfully cultivated in India.

Facts about Asafoetida (Heeng)

• It is a herbaceous plant of the umbelliferae family.
• It is a perennial plant which produces oleo-gum resin from the roots after five years of plantation.
• Climatic conditions required: It thrives in cold, arid environments.
  • Soil: The plant prefers sandy, well-drained soil with low moisture.
  • Rainfall: Ideally annual rainfall of 200 mm or less is good, though it can tolerate up to 300 mm in cultivated regions like the Indian Himalaya.
    • Excessive rainfall or high soil moisture can hinder growth.
  • Temperature: It flourishes in temperatures of 10-20° C, tolerates highs of up to 40° C, and withstands winter lows down to –4° C.
    • In extremely dry and cold weather, heeng plants typically become dormant to survive.
• Suitability in India: These requirements make high-altitude, semi-arid regions like Lahaul-Spiti and Uttarkashi in India suitable for its cultivation.

Significance

• It is one of the widely used spices in Indian cuisine since time immemorial.
• Benefits: It has a range of medicinal properties, including relief for digestive, spasmodic and stomach disorders, asthma and bronchitis.
• It is also commonly used to help with painful or excessive bleeding during menstruation and premature labour.

Asafoetida (heeng) cultivation in India

• India is world’s largest consumer of heeng.
• There is no production of heeng in India and currently, it is being imported annually from Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan.

Government initiative

• The government launched a national effort to promote indigenous cultivation of heeng under the CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh.
• As part of this programme, CSIR-IHBT procured heeng seeds, initially from Iran, and later from Afghanistan.
• Import permits were taken from the ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in New Delhi, the designated nodal agency for plant germplasm import and quarantine.
• Controlled trials were conducted at IHBT Palampur and its Centre for High Altitude Biology in Ribling in Lahaul & Spiti.
• To further institutionalise this progress, the Heeng Germplasm Resource Centre was established at IHBT Palampur and was formally inaugurated on March 5, 2022.
  • It serves as the national hub for conservation, research, training, seed production, and plant propagation vis-à-vis heeng.

Villages that became early adopters of this initiative were:

• Lahaul & Spiti: Madgran, Salgran, Beeling, Keylong
• Mandi: Janjehli, Majhakhal, Kataru, Ghayan, Karsog
• Kinnaur: Kafnoo, Hango, Maling, Reckong Peo, Kalpa, Moorang, Graming, Katgaon
• Kullu: Bagsaid, Dhaugi–Sainj, Kotla–Banjar
• Chamba: Pangi, Deol, Bharmour, Mahala, Tooh