Chillies and Big Onion

chille

Chilies and Big Onions are two other food crops which have drawn special attention of paddy, Other Grains and Pulses, Crops Production/Promotion Team. The production, pricing and availability of these two crops have been the subject of political dialogue and agitation which at time have led to very explosive situations. These two crops therefore have been highly emphasized by the Hon. Minister of Agriculture and lands in the development programme of the ministry.

Chillie is an indispensable condiment in the Sri Lanka diet. It ranks high among our cash crops. It is a labour intensive crop, and provides direct employment to about 350 man days per ha. With disturbances in major production area in the North, the expansion of the crop in non-traditional areas such as Mahaweli System H, Matale, polonnaruwa and Kurunegala has grown tremendously.
Declining production and instability in production of chilies have been observed in the recent past. Increasing cost of production and declining yields are largely due to pests and disease incidences and poor management practices. As a result, substantial proportion of the requirement has been imported from other countries. Miscalculation and incorrect timing of imports often caused drastic price fluctuations affecting both producers and consumers.


.....chillie......

Since Srilanka has the potential to expand chillie cultivation over and above the present levels, the Team formulated a programme for the extensive Cultivation of chilies by increasing the cultivated extent and increasing yield per unit area. There are prospects to increase chillies extent in Maha under agro-wells and well-drained paddy fields with supplementary irrigation.
The chillies production in mahaweli be 17,250mt in 1998 and 27,110mt in the year 2005 and yala production well be 11,000mt in 1998 and 24,000mt in 2005. Current average yield of chille is 1,184kg/ha and this well be increased up to 1,450kg/ha by year 2005 following the planned strategies.
Since the DOA produces only basic seeds, private sector seed producers will be encouraged to produce high quality seed. In addition, farmers will be educated to produce quality seed(own seed)
Tow strategies to increase production are as follows=
I. Promote cultivation under agro-well(minimum 0.2 ha per well) during Maha and well drained paddy fields during late Maha. Extension staff will identify areas and yayaas in Anuradhapura, monaragala, Kurunegala and identified major irrigation schemes.
II. Following action will be taken to increase productivity per unit area in all major irrigation schemes.
a. Organize farmers on yaya basis through farmer organizations for collective action
b. Early issue of water in yala
c. April planting in Yala and avoid late planting
d. Educate farmers on proper pesticide use.
Extension staff with the relevant agencies such as Dept. of Agrarian Services, Agriculture Development Authority and Farmer Organizations well be taking following action to promote green chillie production especially in the zone districts.
a. Initiate home garden chillie production especially in urban areas.
b. Establish nurseries at each Govi Sevana to sell seedlings for small scale green Chillie producers.

.......Big Onions.......

Big Onions is an indispensable condiment in the Sri Lanka diet. A remarkable increase in extent was recorded early nineties. However, a declining trend in extent cultivated can be seen in recent past mainly due to instability in price. Inadequate marketing facilities, non availability of quality seeds and problem of storage. Miscalculation and incorrect timing of import of big onions caused drastic price fluctuations in the market affecting the growers.
In drawing up production plans, increasing the cultivated area and increasing per ha. Yields (and thereby bringing the cost of production down) were envisaged. Present cost of cultivation of Big onions is Rs: 97.022 per ha. With the present yield, the costs of production work out Rs: 8.82 per kg. Big onion yields are expected to be increased upto kg 14,000 per ha by 2002 and this would result in accost of production of Rs, 7.24 by 2002, which is 11 percent reduction over the present figure.
Per capita consumption of big onion seems to be determined jointly with Red onion consumption. However, the per capita consumption of big onion is assumed as 5.4kh/year.
Since sri lanka has the potential to expand Big onion cultivation over and above the present levels, the Team formulated a programme for the extensive cultivation of big onion in Sri Lanka.
There is scope to increase the cultivated extent during Yala in order to narrow down the big gap between domestic requirement and local production. However, strong supportive programmes have to be implemented to encourage storage, local seed production and discourage imports during harvesting period.
Importation of quality seed materials specially from India is required to achieve the projected production. Current policies of the Indian Government do not allow seed import to sri lanka. Thus strong support to produce Big onion seeds locally is required. It is planned to produce 3,000 kg of seed locally in 1998and this will be increased up to 15,000 kg in 2005. It is expected to clear the seed importation barriers as soon as possible with inter-governmental negotiations.
More than 90% of the seed requirement is imported to the country from India. Lack of a legitimate system of importing seed from India has often resulted in the poor quality of seeds available in the open market and as a consequence production of big onion Sri Lanka is greatly hampered.


Following action will be taken to ensure the supply of quality seed for planting.

I. Negotiate with Indian Government to import quality seeds for planting.
II. Encourage farmers to increase local seed production(6% of requirement in 1997to 26%in 2005) using appropriate technology,
III. Seed production in poly-tunnels in Nuwara Eliya as well as Matale and Kurunegala .
IV. Farmer training programme to produce quality of seed .
.......ONION.....

I. Establishment of yaya demonstrations (2 ha each) in major producing districts with:

· Suitable varieties
· Improved cultural practices
· Balanced fertilizer application based on soil test (organic and inorganic fertilizer)
II. Providing technical and financial assistance for small, medium and large scale storage in dambulla and Mahaweli ‘’H’’ areas:
· Small scale(cottage level) * farm product
· Medium scale *5-10 tone
· Large scale * About 100 tone

III. Extension staff will identity suitable areas for off season cultivation of big onion.
IV. Adoptive research programme in 50 locations at Nuwara Eliya and Badulla districts will be launched.