With blight infesting chilli plants since last year, farmers of Jiminang under Maedwang Gewog in Thimphu are worried that they might not be able to harvest their cash crop.
Locals said the disease broke out in July this year affecting almost all the farmers there.
Chillies rot hanging, the leaves dry and eventually fall due to the blight. The late blight broke out in July. Chilli blight is one of the major diseases of chilli. It causes sudden wilting and death of plants, both in nursery and transplanted fields.
“We don’t know why it is happening. It is a great loss for us as we don’t get to sell and consume chilli,” said a farmer, Thuji Dema. “We would be very grateful if the government could look into the matter as to why it is happening and what could be done,” she added.
Thuji said the agriculture office gave her the chemical which is used for apple blight as a temporary measure. However that did not help either.
“I think the native saplings do not rot,” said Jiminang Tshogpa Tshering Om. “However when it’s insufficient, we have to get it from other districts. And it gets infected when planted together with the native ones,” the Tshogpa added.
According to an agriculture official, the blight is incurable once infected. He said the only solution at present is to uproot the infected ones and dispose it far away from the healthier ones.
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