Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan called a meeting of various stakeholders, including representatives from the Agriculture Department, Punjab Mandi Board, Punjab Agro Export Corporation, and chilli growers, at the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat in Chandigarh following his visit to this border district last week during which the chilli cultivators had shared their grievances and concerns.
The group examined the viability of constructing a processing facility in the district’s chilli belt.
According to Sandhwan, the state’s reliance on Mexico, the world’s largest producer of chillies, has decreased as a result of agricultural production on about 40,000 acres in Ferozepur.
Asserting that it was the duty of the state government to set up a chilli processing plant in the region, he said with this facility, the chilli crop could be processed here and supplied for domestic consumption.
Sandhwan asked officials to explore the feasibility of providing facilities such as a processing plant and dryer to parch the chillies, besides setting up a research centre to develop new varieties and cold storage chain. He said he would review the status after a month.
