THE growers of longi chilli, a type known for its spicy taste and distinctive aroma, anticipate a better harvest this season despite a drop in the area under cultivation. They say the fruiting in plants looks good thanks to timely and moderate rain during the monsoon.

The acreage has decreased to 74,100 acres during the current season (2017-18), due mainly to the shortage of irrigation water in chilli-producing areas in March and April when sowing was at its peak.

Chillies were cultivated on 88,811 acres during the last season (2016-17) as compared to 91,527 acres in 2015-16. The sowing targets for the two seasons were 91,431 and 88,960 acres, respectively.

Growers don’t meet standards required to handle and store the produce. But some believe farmers can still produce best quality if they are provided with essential services and institutional assistance

Most of the country’s chilli production comes from Sindh, mainly from Umerkot district’s Kunri town where one of Asia’s largest chilli markets is located. In 2016-17, Sindh produced 99,699 tonnes of chilli. The contribution by other provinces is negligible so far.

A hybrid variety of green chilli with higher yield potential is being regularly sown in Kunri.

Longi chilli will be harvested from the next month. This type of chilli has been beset by contamination in the recent past, but growers are now benefiting from different measures taken by foreign donor agencies and the corporate sector.

The World Bank-assisted Sindh Agriculture Growth Project (SAGP) is one such intervention. Around 200 farmers are associated with the programme, says Mian Saleem, a leading chilli grower from Kunri and the focal person for the project’s chilli component.

The SAGP helps growers improve farm practices right from sowing, management, the use of fertiliser and pesticides, harvest and the drying of crop.

Under this project, growers are provided with green nets, crates, cover sheet, etc on a cost-sharing basis to reduce the level of aflatoxin — a naturally occurring toxin that can cause liver cancer — in chillies. Most developed countries don’t import chillies if they have aflatoxin.

Farmers have also joined hands with the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition (PAC), which was formed in 2013 with the support of 25 leading business groups.

The PAC designed an e-trading platform business model which started working in 2015. A laboratory has also been established where samples of chillies are tested before grading.

These measures have helped reduce the level of aflatoxin in chillies to 10 parts per billion to 30 ppb.

Still, a major chunk of the crop that makes it to the conventional market for local consumption has aflatoxin levels as high as 200 ppb.

Farmers understand that better agricultural practices can help reduce the aflatoxin ratio even further and they can export their produce through e-trading, Mr Saleem says. “Last year, I got a premium of Rs600 over and above the market price for my RC-I [red chilli-I] category.”

The price of a 40-kilogram bag of chillies was selling for Rs6,000 to Rs7,000 last season.

The Kunri’s market witnessed deals of 2,200 tonnes of chilli in the last season through online trading. The PAC hopes the quantity will double this year.

“Our farmers can produce best quality of red chilli. They just need to be provided with essential services and institutional assistance, and linked with major processors,” says PAC’s Hamid Raza, adding that the coalition borrowed this business model from France.

Longi chilli is known for its medium heat profile. It enhances the flavour of food and thus preferred by processors and restaurants. However, below-par crop management right from sowing to harvesting has put its quality at stake.

Chilli growers are not accustomed to meeting standards required to handle and store the produce. For instance, different qualities of chillies get mixed due to improper handling.

For the participation of a grower in online trading, physical parameters of the crop are ensured and the produce is weighed transparently.

After lab tests, chillies are graded into various qualities such as RC1, RC2 and RC3 having aflatoxin level of 10 ppb, 20 ppb and 30 ppb, respectively.

The RC1 variety was in short supply last year due to cloudy weather which helps the growth of fungus in crop, growers say.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 21st, 2017