The Kunri town in Mirpurkhas district, once known as the biggest chili market in the Asia, has lost its distinguished status as the area under cultivation of this crop has declined from 1,50,000 acres to 40,000 acres and production from one million tonnes to hardly 30-35 thousand tonnes over the last two decades.
"Ineffective government policies, imposition of various taxes, ban on export, indifferent attitude of concerned departments towards eradication of crop diseases and persistent acute water shortage were the major reasons behind decay of the chili market," the growers and traders told newsmen.
The Kunri chili market that got this status 50 years back in 1954, usually had arrival of crop by last week of July or first week of August every year but this year the arrival has been delayed by over a month due to late sowing and harvesting due to water shortage.
Last year in September, about 15,000 to 20,000 bags of chili had arrived in the market but the traders were still waiting for the crop. They fear that the chili production this season would hardly be 30 to 35 thousand tonnes as the area under cultivation has declined to 40,000 acres.
The growers told that agriculture department had neglected this crop with no research on it or any other step to control the crop diseases. "This season the termite is eating away the crop because of scanty rains and that naturally would cause further losses," they added.
They told further that the chili crop needs water after every three to four days but due to rotation system introduced at the canals owing to water shortage, the chili crop used to get water every 15 days during which the crop starts drying up. "Due to shortage of water the growers have to sustain a loss of Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000 per acre," they told adding that rotation still continues and there is no water to irrigate the crops.
The traders deplored the ban on export of chili and told that in 1998-99 about 932 tonnes and in 1999-2000 about 1735 tonnes of chili were exported earning huge foreign exchange to the country.
They told that Sindh was on the top in producing chili as the statistics show that 1,35,800 tonnes chili produced in 1995-96 had 1,07,000 tonnes produced in Sindh only. In 1996-97, the total production of chili in the country was 1,40,100 tonnes of which 1,10,500 tonnes were produced in Sindh. Out of 1,40,200 tonnes in 1997-98, Sindh produced 1,12,900 tons; in 1998-99, Sindh produced 1,14,500 tonnes out of 1,36,600 tonnes while in the year 1999-2000, the overall chili production declined in the country to 1,15,500 tonnes of which Sindh produced 93,500 tonnes.
The chairman, Mirch Mandi (Chili Market) Association, Kunri Haji Abdullah, the President Red Chilies` Growers` Organization Haji Mian Muhammad Salim, agriculturist Ghulam Akbar Dars, growers Muhammad Jam Memon, Fakir Nawaz Ali, Shaukat Ali, Nazar Ali Soofi, trader M. Salim and others also complained about unfair distribution of irrigation water. They demanded for making arrangements of proper storage of high quality chili and research for producing new varieties of red chili.
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