Yawar Nazir / Getty Images Contributor

Yawar Nazir / Getty Images Contributor

A Kashmiri farmer holds a threads, or crocus, from saffron flowers

A Kashmiri farmer picks saffron flowers in a farm on Monday, Nov. 05, 2012 in Pampore, in Indian administered Kashmir. Production of the precious spice is falling rapidly in the region. Farmers have become concerned at the falling yield of the saffron crop year after year with the changing climatic conditions responsible for a 50 to 60 percent decrease in the yield for the last two decades. Approximately 5,000 flowers are required to provide enough threads to make an ounce. Saffron is a precious spice because of the vast acreage involved in addition to the labor-intensive handpicking of the flowers and extracting of the tiny threads.

Yawar Nazir / Getty Images Contributor

Kashmiri farmers pluck threads, or crocus, from saffron flowers.

Slideshow: Falling for autumn

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