Chillies are an essential part of any food lover's diet, and a chilli with a fragrance is more tempting still. Sunil, a farmer from Hewlibunia village in Barguna, grows just such a fragrant variety, and it has earned him the name "Morich Sunil" (Chilli Sunil) in the district. Local people know the variety he grows as "Ghritakumari morich" or "Bombay morich". It is as fragrant as it is in demand, both locally and further afield.

Sunil passed his SSC in 1986 and, instead of chasing higher education or a job, turned to farming. About a decade ago he began growing fragrant chillies on a small patch of fallow land. With success he gradually expanded, and today his garden covers one acre with 5,000 chilli plants that he tends carefully every day. The work earns him Tk 8 lakh a year, and the garden employs three labourers.

In the garden, Sunil collects seed from his own plants using a special method and raises seedlings in rows, which are then transplanted into the garden, also by a special method. Surplus seedlings are sold outside. Seedlings are planted towards the end of the Bengali month of Shrabon, followed by care, fertiliser, weeding and pesticide against insects. Harvesting begins in Ashwin.

Sunil picks and sells chillies every day, and wholesalers come from Barguna town daily to collect them. The harvest continues until Baishakh. Chillies worth Tk 10,000 to 15,000 are sold from his field each day, and a hundred chillies sell wholesale for Tk 100 to 600. Last season, after all costs, Sunil made a profit of Tk 6 lakh. With an even better yield this year, he hopes his profit may exceed Tk 8 lakh.

Buyer Md Rezaul told Jagonews: "I have fallen in love with these Bombay chillies. Every year I buy Tk 1,000 to 1,500 worth from his garden, and I give the chillies and seedlings to relatives as gifts. Anyone who has had them once asks me for more. His chillies are sold all over the Barguna market and used in chotpoti, singara, chop, piyaju and other foods."

Md Hossain, a labourer in the garden, said: "I have worked here for ten years, and my family depends on this garden. By the grace of Allah the owner does well from growing chillies. Floods and rain sometimes cause problems, but chilli farming is still profitable. Anyone interested can grow chillies the way we do; it is a very profitable crop."

Garden owner Sunil Chandra Mondal told Jagonews: "After passing my SSC in 1986 I devoted myself to farming, working myself and also hiring labourers. That is how I have become fairly successful, and I want to keep farming. Through it I have built a house in town, my son is studying for an honours degree in English, and I have married my daughter into a good family."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.