Growing King Chillis under the shade of Bamboo canopy : A way to reduce the incidence of insect pest and diseases to have bumper yield with no irrigation in hills.
-Farmer Samir Bordoloi
King Chillis are one of the unique types of chillis
found in most of the parts of Northeast India known all over the world for its
hotness. The chilli grows well in the states of Nagaland, Manipur , Assam and
few parts of Arunachal Pradesh. The local name of the chilli differs from place
to place and also there are different types of the chilli in terms of size,
shape, colour , plant size and hotness. Very less works has been done on the
research part to identify the qualities of different types of king chillis
available in the region. This type of chilli plant is subjected to many insect
pests and diseases and most susceptible to four types of viral infection. Thus,
at SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre where Farmers are the barefoot scientists
conducted a study based on the traditional ways of growing this crop in remote
hilly villages of Nagaland and Manipur. With those indigenous techniques, the
Farm Learning Centre incorporated ecological farming methods based on the
sustainable reuse and recycling of the Farm Resources. King chilli is a
shade-loving plant and it was recorded that , it was less prone to insects
attack resulting in viral infestation was less when provided with proper shade.
The indigenous people of Old Tesan village and Tenning village of Peren
district of Nagaland has an unique way of growing king chillis under the shade
of trees and bamboo plants on the hills. Working on the same technique of
growing king chillis, SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre led by Farmer Samir
Bordoloi planted king chillis under the bamboo canopy with modifications in the
planting techniques by making larger pits and incorporating compost and bamboo
bio char fertilizer and mulching with dry bamboo leaves. In the experiment, 100
plants were planted under a bamboo canopy and 84 plants survived without
incidence of any major insect pest and diseases. It was observed that this
method enables the plant to thrive in hard conditions in the hills like non
availability of irrigation water and difficult conditions for intercultural
operations like weeding and land preparations. 100 plants of same size and age
were also planted without shade in the farm and it was found that only 30
plants survived and had severe infestation of aphids and leaf curl virus though
planted in raised beds with proper nutrition. This was also observed that the
bamboo plant shred leaves which covers the exposed land and acts as mulch for
the king chillis and retain moisture in the root zone which helps them in hills
where there is acute shortage of water for irrigation. The green canopy
provides about seventy per cent shade where the plants are very strong and
productive. The challenge of soil insects like cut worms and termites were
taken care by application of egg shell powder and wood ash and bio char. Bamboo
leaf mulch also reduced the infestation of cut worms and snails. It is observed
that a 5 to 6 years old bamboo canopy can support 80 to 100 plants to grow
strong and produce about 120 kilograms of king chillis and can earn about
Rs.24000 per growing season for the farmers.
INTRODUCTION :
King chillis are shade-loving plants and they
do not grow well under the direct sun. They are more subjected to incidence of
insects and viral infections when grown under the sun and with a clean
cultivation practices like proper beds , weeding and much systematic way of
farming. These are the feedback of the indigenous farmers of the Northeast
growing this crop and also our experience of trying to grow this crop in
different farms of the northeast growing it organically. While working with the
farmers of Old Tesan , Peren and Tenning villages of Peren district of Nagaland
, we found that the farmers have an unique method of growing this crop in the
hills under the shade of the bamboo canopy and they didn’t have access to
irrigation water in the hills. They simply dig the soil with a short
handle-spade to make a small pit and plant the sapling and slightly tap the
soil with their feet . The plants grow naturally without any fertilization and
after care and they harvest good quality chillis . Banking on this traditional
way of farming in the hills , we incorporated our ecological farming techniques
to yield better quality , disease free , less insect damage , minimum
requirement of water and management practices , and naturally organic king
chillis. In comparison to the plants grown under direct sun , the survivality
and productivity of the plants grown under bamboo canopy are better. The method
used is based on the recycling and reuse of the farm resources making it low
cost technology to add on to profit.
OBJECTIVES:
·
To
increase productivity of king chilli by proper shade management and use the land
under bamboo canopy.
·
To
develop a bamboo-based cropping pattern.
·
To
develop a method to utilize hilly land with less water availability into king
chilli growing zones to enhance farmer’s income.
·
To
develop a business package of king chilli and bamboo, two potential crops of
North east India.
SPREAD NE Method of Growing King Chilli
under Bamboo Canopy :
Seed Source : Keep your own seed . Make a bio
intensive raised bed under the canopy of a bamboo to grow the mother plants and
collect similar size , matured and ripen fruits . Use a hand glove to pluck the
fruit and place the fruits in a paper plate and above a tissue paper. Keep it
in a dark place with proper ventilation and change the tissue paper whenever it
is wet. Keep like this for seven days and after that with a sharp knife or
blade cut the stalk of the fruit and dissect the fruit length wise in the
centre . Now with a bamboo stick (Needle shaped) , remove the seeds and after
shade drying store in a sealed paper envelope.
Seed Treatment: Mix 50 gms of raw turmeric paste in
100 ml raw milk and 300 ml cow urine .Add 25 gms of wood ash and 50 gms paste
of Calotropis leaves or Papaya leaves. Mix this solution with 2 litres of water
in a clean container. Tie up the King chilli seeds in a soft muslin / cotton
cloth and dip it in the solution for 20 minutes . Shade-dry and sow the seeds
in a seedling-tray.
Seedling Raising: Fill up the seedling trays with the
mix of 70 percent compost that you make through heap and hot composting, 20
percent worm compost and 10 percent bamboo bio char. With the help of a bamboo
stick make a small hole of about 1 cm deep and place the seed on the center. Use
disposable hand gloves while sowing. Keep the seed tray under the shade and
water it in regular intervals.
We can also grow the seedlings by making a bio
intensive raised bed of the size 3ft wide and required length. The bed after
double-digging should be raised to 6 inches by using bamboo frame under a
bamboo canopy and the raised beds should be filled with 70 percent compost, 20
percent worm compost and 10 per cent bamboo bio char. It is good to sprinkle 1
kgs wood ash mixed with 200 g egg-shell powder or snail-shell powder to keep
the soil insects away and also add calcium to the soil. Mix same amount of
seeds and worm compost in a paper and mix thoroughly and then sow it on the bed
ensuring uniform spread. Watering the beds in regular interval is essential.
The seedlings are ready to be transplanted in 25-30 days.
Making Planting pits
under the Bamboo Canopy:
Make pits of 1 feet wide and 1 feet long
(square) and 1 feet deep. After digging out 1 feet soil from the pit, loosen
the bottom of the pit as much as possible. Now mix 200 g compost, 50 g bio char
, 100 g wood ash , and 100 g worm compost with the dug-out soil and mix
thoroughly and then fill up the pit . Don’t compact the soil and make a hole of
the size of the soil attached with the seedling and place it in the center of
the pit and gently tap the soil with hands. Mulch the pits with fallen bamboo
dry leaves. Cut worms do not like the bamboo leaf mulch and our seedlings are
safe. They also don’t allow weeds to grow near the plants and retain the
moisture as we rarely have watering sources in the hills. Best time of planting
the seedlings is April-May. The spacing from one plant to the other plant
should be 2 feet.
Plant Care Techniques:
7 days after planting:
Mix one handful of
fresh cow dung or 1 kg of top soil or 500 g of compost, 3 liters of cow urine
or 1 liters of vermin wash, 1 liters of rice gruel in 20 liters of clean water
and shake clockwise and anticlockwise for 20 minutes with a bamboo stick and
then apply one cup of the solution to the base of each plants.
15 days after planting:
·
Boil
500 g Calotropis leaves, 100 g ginger, 500 g Karanj leaves, 500 g Castor
leaves, 200 g raw turmeric paste and 50 g garlic paste in 5 liters of water.
Boil the solution until it is half i.e. 2.5 liters remaining. Cool down the
solution and then filter the extract with a cotton cloth. Mix the extract with
water in the ratio of 1:9 and spray on the crop. [In case the mentioned leaves are not available, farmers can take
those leaves which are not eaten by cows and goats.]
·
Re-Use Plastic Mineral water bottles
as sticky traps: Put
yellow paint mixed with thinner inside a used mineral water bottle and shake
well to colour the whole bottle into yellow color from inside. Apply Castor oil
(Sticky) on the outer side of the mineral water bottles and install them in the
crop growing zone and put one bottle for ten plants. This will attract the
sucking insects which transmit viral diseases and will be trapped in the castor
oil.
30 days after
Planting:
·
Mix
200 g bamboo bio char with one liter of vermi wash and 200g of the inner soil
of a termite hill (ensure it is free of the termites), asafetida (Hing) 10g
with 20 liters of water, stir clockwise and anticlockwise for twenty minutes,
filter it with a cotton cloth and sprinkle over your plants and the base of the
plant with a handful of paddy straw dipped in the solution.
·
Cut
the lower leaves with a scissor.
After these operations time to time apply worm
compost to the base of the plant. No weeding is needed as very less weeds grow
under the bamboo canopy because of the natural mulching done by shredding of
the dry bamboo leaves. Following these operations we are having a good yield of
about 2 kgs of chillis per plant per yielding season and one bamboo canopy can
accommodate about 100 chilli plants. We do not plant outside the canopy area.
All the inputs we use are generated in the farm itself keeping the cost of
cultivation very less and farmers can make profit and we can use the space
under the bamboo canopy which remains unused in most of our farms and gardens.
Results and discussions:
King chillis grow best under shade and an
unique system of growing those chillis under the Bamboo canopy is successfully
carried out by the farmers of SPREAD NE Farm Learning Centre, Sonapur of Kamrup
Metro district. In the hills of the farm ,the team of SPREAD NE comprising of
Diganta Kakati, Alakesh Das, Brajen Deka, Riku Rahman, Raju, Hanif and
Kamaleswor Das led by Farmer Samir Bordoloi conducted a trial of growing king
chillis under the bamboo canopy and planted 100 plants under one canopy and
followed the above mentioned techniques and yielded best quality chillis with
minimum infestation of pests and diesases. Now the Centre is training tribal
farmers based in the hills of the region to grow in this model. Out of the 100
plants, 84 plants survived and yield about 250 g of chillis in one plucking per
plant. It was also found that planting in later part of May, the crop is
getting rain water evenly distributed by the bamboo canopy and making optimum
level of rainwater available for the plants. This was also observed that
shredding of bamboo leaves turns out to be a natural mulching technique
covering the soil not allowing unwanted plants to grow and also retaining the
soil moisture adding to microbial growth. The study also revealed that as
termites are a challenge under the bamboo canopy but they were not destroying
the plants because of the use of bio char and egg shell powder on the base of
the plant. The cutworms also didn’t affect the seedlings due to the bamboo leaf
mulch. The growing media of compost, bio char, vermicompost, in the seed trays
without using soil resulted in very strong seedlings. It is important for our
farmers to grow with the indigenous techniques and bringing in innovations by
using the resources we have around us to make our farmers self-dependent and
most importantly profitable. The cost of cultivation is very less as most of
the inputs used were produced at the farm. A comparative study was done on the
growth of king chillis under bamboo canopy and under the sun was taken up and
it was observed that plants growing under the bamboo canopy performed well in
terms of production, infestation of insects and diseases, growing condition
with less water. Most of the plants growing under direct sun were heavily
infested by the leaf curl virus, whereas a few plants only had minimum
incidence of the infestation in few plants. Out of 100 plants planted in both
the conditions, 84 survived under the bamboo canopy and only 30 plants survived
under the sun.
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