Tsirang, the vegetable capital of the country has started producing early Bhutanese green chillies from this year. Farmers from four gewogs in Tsirang started growing the chilli, which is first of its kind in the district. The first group of farmers sold their chillies at the vegetable market in Damphu last Sunday.
30-year-old Pratab Singh Rai from Sergithang is among many farmers who started growing early Bhutanese chilli in Tsirang this year. He cultivated the chilli in less than an acre on his land. Today, after three months of his hard work, Pratab and his wife along with agriculture officials are busy for the first harvest.
“It is first time growing early Bhutanese chilli in Sergithang and its produce is good. I am happy. The district agriculture sector provided mulching plastic for chilli production,” said Pratab Singh Rai, a Farmer from Sergithang in Tsirang.
Like Pratab, there are few more farmers in the gewog who started growing early Bhutanese chilli for the first time.
“I got mulching plastic from the district agriculture sector. The plastic helps in growing chilli better. Although the climate here is favourable for chilli cultivations, the chilli needs adequate water supplies or it dies,” said Ganggaram Sanyasi, also a farmer from the same village.
The district agriculture sector initiated the early Bhutanese chilli plantation with an aim to supplement the short supply of chilli during winter and spring. The sector provided technical support to the farmers along with free mulching plastics and seeds.
Dorji Gyeltshen, the District Agriculture Officer in Tsirang, said he implemented the idea of growing chilli in Tsirang since he served in Trashi Yangtse before where chillies are in abundance. “The climatic conditions of some places in Tsirang are as same as chilli producing places in Trashi Yangtse. So we started growing early Bhutanese chilli in four gewogs on a trial basis. The Dzongdag and colleagues from Tsirang district administration supported our project. We have grown on a small scale this year as a trial but the production is as good as in Trashi Yangtse,” he said.
Looking at the success of the initial plantation, the agriculture sector in Tsirang plans o increase the early Bhutanese chilli production from next year.
At the Sunday vegetable market in Damphu, customers rushed for the chilli since it is first in the market. A kilogram of chilli fetched Nu 400 and some even sold at Nu 500 per kilogram due to acute shortage of green chilli in the market for the last few weeks.
Farmers in Semjong, Gosarling and Rangthangling Gewogs also ventured into the early Bhutanese chilli cultivations this year. The agriculture officials are expecting the harvest from these gewogs to hit the market within the next few weeks.
Pema Tshewang
