The scale of chili cultivation in Gongkhar and Jalikhar villages of Bumthang town has been on an increasing trend over the last decade. However, chili blight has affected their harvest in recent years.
Farmers say they have to practice crop rotation to minimise the effects of the disease on their harvest.
Last year, 40-year-old Yeshey Wangmo could only make Nu 4,000 from more than half an acre of chili-cultivated field in Gongkhar.
“This year, we were issued fungicides. So, we are going to use it after two rounds of weeding. We haven’t used any chemical so far. This year we will have to use it for the very first time.”
Other farmers recounted similar experiences. “When chilies are almost ripe, they rot and fall on the ground. If we have to grow pepper in one field this year, we have to grow them in another field,” said another farmer, Dolay, adding: “Otherwise, we won’t have anything to harvest. But if we grow them in another area, we get to harvest around 70 per cent.”
The Chhoekhor Gewog Agriculture Extension Centre issued fungicides to about 20 households to reduce the affects of the disease.
However, agricultural officials advise farmers to use the fungicide only if cultural control methods fail. The methods include selecting quality seeds for growing seedlings, growing the plants on raised beds, keeping 30 to 40 centimeters gap between each seedling and mulching or spreading manure around the plants among others.
Chili blight has been reported in most of the chili growing districts in the country over the last couple of years. It is now considered as the biggest threat for chili growers in the country as per the National Plant Protection Centre.
This time, most farmers of Jalikhar and Gongkhar villages have already transplanted chili seedlings while some will wrap up plantation works in the next few days.
Farmers of the two villages are known for mass chili cultivation in Bumthang. They sell their produce to local hoteliers, civil servants and other farmers in the district.
“Agricultural officials told us that the imported chilies from India are toxic and inedible. So, we cultivated more thinking that whatever we grow is organic. We grow more chilies than potatoes. Chili cultivation is more profitable,” farmer Yeshey Wangmo said.
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