Annual chilli festival underway in Manipur

Our Correspondent

IMPHAL, Aug 23 (EMN): A three-day annual chilli festival, locally known as ‘hathei phanit’, is underway at Sirarakhong village, about 80 km north of Imphal in Manipur’s Ukhrul district.

The 10th edition of the festival kicked off on Thursday, Aug. 22.

According to the villagers of Sirarakhong village, around 250 household in the village are engaging in chilli plantation and a successful chilli cultivator can earn around INR 2 to 3 lakh annually.

The chilli plantation using greenhouse in the village helps in fast growth but it compromises the size when compared with natural plantation, one of the farmers said.

Besides its unique taste, the dry red chilli powder of Sirarakhong produce a unique colour and pleasing odour when added into curry especially to meat and is said to posses nutritional values, according to experts.

“Though we cannot ascertain this year’s total production as of now as the harvest season is yet to be completed, we believe the production may increase as there is less rainfall in our village this time comparing with previous year,” another villager said.

“The chilli variety available here since time immemorial is one of the best health concern chilli and its demand is high now,” he added.

The village has been reportedly harvesting around 10,000 kilograms every season (July-September) without any technical inputs or chemical fertiliser.

This year’s festival happened at this small hamlet-Sirarakhong which is known for its exclusive variety of chilli, brinjal, cabbage, potato and an endangered rice variety called ‘changlei-thi’ in Tangkhul dialect when some Northeast states are initiating large scale cultivation of the world’s hottest chilli, ‘King chilli,’ the demand for which is said to be on the rise in the middle east and European countries.

A scientist from Manipur has successfully synthesised the hottest Indian hybrid chilli called ‘Kishore’s fireball’ during a trial breeding in Manipur, the country’s hot spot in chilli diversity with several pungent chillies having their origin in Imphal in January 2018.

King chilli or U-morok in Manipur is considered to be the India’s hottest chilli, after being certified by the Guinness World Records as the world’s hottest in 2007.