Akabare chilli farmers in Ilam face crop failure
Akabare chilli farmers in Ilam say their plants are yellowing and dying just as the main harvest begins, with some reporting that most or all of their crop is lost.
Commercial Akabare chilli farmers in Ilam say their plants have started dying in the middle of the main production season. Pradeep Rai, a farmer in Mangsebung Rural Municipality-6, said the plants suddenly turned yellow, branches dried up and whole plants died once the fruit began to set, according to reports by Nagarik News, Khabarhub, DC Nepal and Lokaantar.
Rai, who has grown Akabare commercially for two years, earned Rs 350,000 from the crop last year and expanded this year, planting 1,800 seedlings on two ropanis of land to raise his income. He said that after the plants grew and bore fruit, about half of each fruit scorched, turned black and rotted, and that all of his investment was lost.
Other commercial growers in the area described similar problems. Jeevan Rai said he had planted 2,000 Akabare plants on land used for grain crops, hoping for a good income, but blight on the fruit, insect attacks, yellowing and rotting appeared at fruiting time and most of the plants were destroyed before he could harvest. Kalpana Rai said the disease spread while the chillies were ripening and being picked, and that her whole field was destroyed within a month of the infection starting. She said she has begun planting other crops.
According to the reports, Akabare grown in the area is sold in local markets and in Damak market in Jhapa, and local traders buy it at the farm at Rs 200 to Rs 250 a kilogram. Farmers in Ilam have increasingly turned to commercial Akabare as an alternative to traditional food crops because of the income it brings. The reports quote only farmers: they do not say what is causing the plants to die, how many farms are affected or whether agricultural officials have assessed the damage.