Constraints Faced by Dry Chilli Growers in Production and Marketing of Dry Chilli in Wardha District of Maharashtra

Chilli is universal spice of India. Chillies are said to have originated in the Latin American regions of the New Mexico and Guatemala as a wild crop around 7500BC. There are over 50 spices produced in India and good numbers of them are grown in the country which is indigenous. Among them pepper, cardamom, ginger and dry chilli are important. Among spices, a few spices viz., clove, nutmeg, vanilla and certain varieties of chillies were introduced to the country. Among the spices consumed per head, dried chilli fruits constitute a major share. The objective was to study the problems faced by farmers in production of dry chilli. The result pertaining to this aspect was based on primary data collected through survey method from Wardha district for the year 2010-11. Overall 90 dry chilli growers were selected for the study. Farmers are distributed according to size of land holding i.e., small, medium and large farmers. The study revealed that, the farmers have major problem of the lack of technical knowledge in production while non-remunerative prices and high cost of transportation is major problem in marketing.