Context:
Introduction :
Chilli earned a position in our kitchen. Indian population prefers spicy food and therefore chilies are present in every spicy dish and present food as mouth-watering. In India, chili is used for various purposes such as in curries, chutneys, bell pepper used as vegetables, red and green chili as spices, condiments, sauces, and pickles. The red color of chili is due to capsanthin and pendency in chilies is due to capsaicin. Capsaicin is an alkaloid that is extracted from chilies for medical purposes.
Climate requirements :
Chilli is a tropical and subtropical plant. Requires warm and humid climate. The temperature should be range between 20 - 20°C. Excess rainfall results in defoliation and rotting of the plant. At a period of fruiting time, low moisture causes the bud, deblossom, and fruit drops.
Soil requirement:
Sandy loans, deltaic soil and well-drained soils are suitable for chili cultivation. In the hills of Uttarakhand, a wide range of soils ranging from sandy to clay loam mixed with gravel and coarse same are considered good. Black soil is recommended in rainfed conditions due to its long period of moisture-holding capacity.
Land preparation :
To prepare the land, 2-3 plowing should be done, and crush the cold after each ploughing. 15-20 days before sowing, compost of FYM @ 150-200 Q should spread and mix well in soil. At the last plowing, aldrin or heftap @ 10-15 kg per acre should be applied to the soil to protect the crop from white ants and other soil pests.
Soil treatment for organic chilli farming :
The mixture of 1kg of azobacter or azospirillum and 50 kg FYM should be applied to soil for organic chili farming. You can also add vermicompost @ 2 tonnes per acre.
Sowing time:
As Kharif crop, chilli is down in May to June and as rabi crop, it is down in September - October. As summer crop, it is down in January - February.
Seed rate and seed treatment :
The seed rate for chilli is recommended at 200 gm /acre and for hybrids 80-100 gm/acre.
Seed treatment :
Seeds should be treated with pseudomonas fluorescence, a bio- fungicide that protects the crop from fungal attacks and pests. After that seeds are mixed with azospirillum and left for shade-dried for half-hour.
Nursery raising for chilli farming :
It is recommended that transplanting is good for chilli farming tan direct sowing. Nursery is made at an area of about 200 sq metres with seedbeds of 3 m length and 1.2 m wide. Seedbed is made 10-15 I'm above from the ground. 20 kg of rotten FYM, 100 gm of superphosphate and 50 gm of murate of potash should be applied to the bed.
10-12 cm line to line and 5 cm plant to plant distance and 1-1.5 cm seed depth maintained in the nursery. After sowing the seed, cover the top by 1 cm thick layer of the mixture of FYM and soil.
Plants take 4-6 weeks for ready to transplant on rainy days and 8-10 weeks in winter.
Light irrigation is required before uprooting the seedlings
Seedlings are dipped in 0.5% pseudo moans fluorescence solution for half an hour before transplanting. Transplanting should be done in the evening and 60 cm line to line and 40 cm plant to plant distance should be maintained. The field is irrigated after transplanting.
Chillies can be intercropped with onions. 2 rows of chillies and one row of onions are followed for intercropping. Chillies grown with onion provides great profit to farmers.
Irrigation requirement :
Irrigation depends upon soil and climatic conditions. If leaves droop in the afternoon, It indicated that irrigation is needed. Excess of water should be avoided. The plant requires water for flowering and fruit development.
Diseases and pest management in chilli farming:
Chillies suffer from the diseases like anthracnose, fruit rot, dieback, bacterial wilt, mosaic disease, powdery mildew, leaf spot etc. and to prevent these diseases, spray Trichoderma and pseudomonas species.
Major pests of chilli farming are pod borers, thrips, grubs, nematodes, aphids, mites etc. To get rid of pests attacks use only well rotten manure. Inter dropping of chillies with onion helps prevent pest attacks.
Harvesting:
Chilli can be harvested at the stage of green fruit or red fruit, it depends on the purpose. For making powder chilli and dry chilli, harvesting is done at the red fruit stage.
Major varieties :
CH - 1
CH - 3
CH - 27
Punjab sindhuri
Punjab tej
Punjab surkh
Pusa jwala
Pusa sadabahar
Arka meghana
Arka sweta
Kashi early
Kashi surkh
Kashi Anmol
Pant C-1
Punjab gucchedar
Current production of chilli in India :
India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of chilli with a production of 17. 64 lakh tonnes ( 2020-21). States which produced higher chillies are Andhra Pradesh with 6.30 lakh tonnes, Telangana ( 3.04 lakh tonnes), Madhya Pradesh (2.18 lakh tonnes), Karnataka (1.95 lakh tonnes) and West Bengal(1.06 lakh tonnes).
Reason for the rising price of chilli in India:
The major chilli producer states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana faced excess rains in October - November resulting in a higher price of chilli in India. Apart from this, Andhra Pradesh, the largest producer faced pest attack at crops caused a loss in yield.
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