Chilies-so dear!

Prof. M Zahidul Haque

Prof. M Zahidul Haque and Tanzila Rahman

IN Bangladesh, people from all strata of society love and consume chilies. The Panta-Morich-Peyaz (watered cooked rice--green chili--onion) is a very popular dish among our common people. Apart from its commercial use as flavoring and coloring agent plus medicine manufacturing, chilies have great spice value.

Raw green chilies are added to different food preparation including jahl muri (hot puffed rice), bhorta (mashed), country cake, etc.

Chilies (Morich), Botanical name-Capsicum, family-Solanaceae, native of Mexico are grown in almost every parts of the world. In Bangladesh, chilies are grown in area of about 66,235 ha and the annual production is about 52,215 m tons. There are different types of chilies grown in different parts of Bangladesh including Comilla, Barisal, Faridpur, Bogura. Several local varieties including Balijuri, Bona, Paba, Patnai, etc. are cultivated in Bangladesh.

Naga Morich is the hottest chili peppers grown in Bangladesh and India. A special type of mildly hot chili is grown in the Kashmir region of India which is known as ‘Kashmiri Chili’. The bright red Kashmiri Chili powder is added to various dishes including curries for red coloring and for making the dishes more attractive and delicious.

Green chilies are rich in Vitamin-A, Vitamin-K plus capsaicin. Green Chilies improve human immune system and digestion process. High in antioxidant carotenoids, chilies provide several health benefits. Red chili powder and raw green chilies are added to curries and other dishes to enhance taste, flavor and pungency of the foods.

Green Chilli

Meanwhile during the last few months particularly before and after the Eid-al-Azha holidays prices of green chilies soared to a record-high—Tk. 800 to Tk 1000/- per Kg in the country. This was because of sharp decline in production and supply in relation to demand for green chilies.

This year (2023), the production of chilies was low owing to a number of factors including drought, excessive rain, etc. The production dropped to 25- 30% less due to these natural causes. Some chili farmers have reported that the chili production was high last year but due to lack of good prices, they had to sustain loss and therefore they reduced chili cultivation.

With a view to check the skyward price-hike of Chilies, the Government decided to import Chilies from India and soon after the Eid holidays, green chilies started to pouring in Bangladesh. The price of chilies has declined but yet to be stabilized. It is believed that a group of unscrupulous traders through syndication are regulating the green chili prices. The citizens strongly feel that the government monitoring system needs to be intensified and strengthened and concerned law must be strictly enforced. It is equally important to increase local production of Chilies to avoid sudden fall in supply and to ensuring fair price for the farmers.

However, plantation of chili plants in pots and in trays on roof-top gardens by households can keep chilies available round the year. It may be mentioned here that one chili plant can produce even a hundred chilies or more. Depending on species, a chili plant can live between 5-15 years. They can be grown in-door in pots which need a warm and sheltered spot plus some care. Chili plants can also be grown in hydroponic culture.

In our country, Chilies are grown in abundance during the Robi season. The consumers can properly store chilies to control wastage of surplus chilies and to meet the demand for green chilies in the lean period.

A common process of preserving chilies involves the following steps: 1. Wash the green chilies and pat them dry to making them moisture-free

2. Cut off the stems of Chilies

3. Put them in an air-tight zip-lock bag

4. Store the bag in the coolest corner of the refrigerator

Green chilies can also be stored in air-tight box after washing, cutting off stem and drying. A paper may be placed at the bottom of the box so that moisture on chilies may not be accumulated. In this way chilies can be preserved for three months. In intervals of week or so, the tissue paper inside the box should be hanged and the chilies be wiped with paper or cloth to avoid moisture accumulation.

Let us move to grow chilies by every household and store green chilies so that we may not reach to a sorry state, sobbing—Chilies-so dear!

(Prof. M Zahidul Haque retired as Professor and was also a former Dean of Faculty of Agriculture at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka.) 

(Tanzila Rahman (BCS-Agri) is Upazila Agriculture Officer, Ramu, Cox’s Bazar)