Why Farmers In This Darjeeling Village Are Shifting To Chilli Cultivation

When one thinks of North Bengal, the first thing that comes to one’s mind are the hills and the enchanting forests of the Duars. Tourists flock to popular destination cities in West Bengal including Darjeeling, Digha, Suderbans, Mandarmani, Siliguri and others. Similarly, one of the popular tourist destinations in the heart of Darjeeling is Sittong village.

The influx of tourists increases in this village in the late winter/early summer when it is called the ‘orange’ village due to the over-cultivation of oranges in these months. In recent years, the farmers of Sittong have started developing interest in chilli cultivation owing to profit and high income.

Earlier, the local people of Sittong were thought to be self-sufficient by cultivating only oranges, but now this mountain village in Darjeeling has adopted a new source of income. They have created arable land on slopes of the hill and growing chillies on that land. Amarendra Pandey, who is in charge of the Kopham Department of North Bengal University, said that at present, various villages of Darjeeling are showing interest in chilli cultivation.

“Starting from different types of pickles from this branch, people who like to eat spice also use this chilli during cooking. This chilli looks like a red cherry and is showing a new direction of income in the tourism of North Bengal,” said Amarendra Pandey.

Nowadays, a specific chilli pickle called Dal-Chilli pickle can be found at almost every shop in different hill villages. Looking like a red cherry, this chilli is as crunchy as it is beautiful, said Amarendra Pandey. The demand for this pickle is huge in Darjeeling.

Similarly, farmers in Sundarbans have begun to cultivate Bullett chillies and are benefitting from it. Bullet chillies are known to yield more produce in comparatively less time than other species of chillies. Farmers in the Sundarbans are now benefiting from cultivating bullet chillies. While regular chilli plants take about two and a half to three months to bear fruit, the hybrid bullet chilli yields result in under two months, which is a huge benefit for the farmers. Also, the produce of the crop is much higher than the regular chillies. Hence, farmers can make extra profits by growing more bullet chillies on a small land.