Saffron has long history in Iranian agriculture and has played a significant role in socio-economic and cultural structure of the small scale farming communities of arid areas of the country, mainly in the southern Khorasan. This cash crop is a low resource demanding plant with a high input productivity and efficiency capabilities. It is the most expensive spice in the world, a valuable source of revenue for poor farmers and a prestige of color, taste and aroma for the foods of the rich. Although saffron production has gained a lot of experiences, not much improvement in the farming practices has been achieved. Therefore, despite experimental findings of the last 50 years, much of the results have not come under practical use. Critical elements of agronomic practices such as date and depth of planting, water requirement and regime, plant density and nutrients requirement which are fundamental to saffron production have not changed much. This also applies to high technologies such as biotechnology and precision farming which are expanding rapidly in other disciplines, but not much for this crop. Therefore, saffron production seems to be much based on traditional and indigenous knowledge of farming communities. Good practice for saffron production in Iran which is based on indigenous knowledge is associated with the following principles: - Selection of proper corm size with more than 8 g (2.5 cm diameter) and disinfection at the time of planting. - Optimum density of 50 plants/m2 which requires at least 4 tons/ha corm - Suitable time of planting, either in June or early September. - Application of right amount of animal manure (mainly decomposed cow manure, not less than 30 tons/ha) - Application of the right amount of water (not less than 3000 m3/ha) at proper stages, notably the first irrigation. - Decreasing age of the fields from 8 years to 4 years. - Protection of the crop against weeds, pests, and diseases on the bases of integrated management and environmentally sound practices. - Keeping the high quality product by proper post harvest processing based on International standards. In this paper attempts are made to review the state of the art of saffron production in Iran with particular reference to the present technologies and research findings.

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