The Promotion of Dry Chilli production programme has been implemented by office of the Deputy Provincial Department of Agriculture, Mannar with the support of Line Departmen. Under this program 240 beneficiaries were selected, and MICH Hy-1 chilli seeds were distributed to beneficiaries as 0.25 acre per beneficiary.
Mr. N. A. Naleen is one of the beneficiaries of the above programme. 50 grams of chilli seeds were provided to the above farmer. The chilli cultivation was carried out under the technical guidance of Mrs. Divine Beeries, Agriculture Instructor.
The field day was held on 13th of March 2024 under the chairmanship of S. F. C. Uthayachandran, Deputy Provincial Director of Agriculture, Mannar. In this event, Assistant Director of Agriculture, Subject Matter Officers, Agriculture Instructors, Technical Assistants, Staff from Agrarian Department and Irrigation Department along with Farmer Organization Leaders and Farmers participated in the ceremony.
Mr. S.F.C. Uthayachandran, Deputy Provincial Director of Agriculture, Mannar highlighted that green chilli has been cultivated in Mannar sufficiently. Even though dry chilli production has been limited due to the higher demand for green chilli and processing delay of dry chilli production because of its physical characterizes and quality such as weight, colour and robust savory taste.
Then farmer MR. N. Nalin mentioned that during the first harvest, we received 550kg of green chilli within that 300kg of green chilli has been placed to drying for dry chilli production. After that, Subject matter officer Mr. S.A.J. Lambert described the agronomical practices which are follow up during the dry chilli production and importance of nursery establishments in chilli cultivation. In addition to that challenges which are faced by farmers during dry chilli production and ways to overcome the challenges were also discussed. Then respective agricultural instructor also provides additional information on chilli cultivation and post harvesting techniques.
