The Siaha district of Mizoram recently got a zing for the local farmers. Situated along the Myanmar border in Mizoram, it is one of the remotest districts in India. The district grows one of the hottest varieties of chili, which is known as the Bird’s eye chili which has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag.
The local farmers used to sell their chilies at very low prices to traders from Silchar in Assam. They would sell green chilies at about Rs. 50 per kilo and dry chilies at Rs 150 per kilo.
But now, their earnings are 14 times more, all thanks to a former district magistrate Bhupesh Chaudhary. DM Chaudhary helped in getting a project devised and the infrastructure was set up for processing powdered chili. He estimated the potential of the product in the domestic market. Chaudhary set them up under 25 self help groups and a cooperative society comprising 283 members. They were also provided with training in technical and basic business models along with giving out FSSAI and India Organic certification.
As per reports the powdered chili is being sold by the farmers at Rs. 700 per kilo.
With the help of schemes like RKVY-Raaftar, MGNREGA and Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture solar tunnels for drying the chilies, processing and machinery have been installed. The machines have been provided by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited under its CSR program.
The project took off in a phased manner from February 2019 at Zyhno village. It was soon joined by neighboring villages including Siatlai, Chheihlu, Ahyhmpi, Khopai and Laki. The first ever batch of chilli powder was sold in December 2019 under the brand name of Maraland Ahiah Paohpa.
The initiative has helped in providing a sustainable livelihood to the chili farmers in the district who previously used to work as laborers cultivating chili only once a year.
