Kashmiri Saffron Most Expensive Spice in World (per Kg $2,950; £1,800)

Here, women can be seen plucking threads from the flowers to extract the spice.

The small town of Pampore, where thousands of hectares of land is used for saffron cultivation, is just about half an hour's drive from Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar. Pampore is often called Kashmir's saffron town.

Indian-administered Kashmir is known for its high-quality saffron, a spice derived from the crocus flower. Photographer Abid Bhat travels to a saffron field in Pampore town to see how the world's most expensive spice is harvested.

The spice doesn't come cheap - one kg of dry saffron fetches around 180,000 rupees ($2,950; £1,800).

Saffron is grown commercially primarily in India, Spain and Iran. But the Kashmir variety is considered the best and it is the most expensive.

More than 75,000 crocus flowers are needed to produce one pound of saffron.