According to the second rainy season weather predictions, rains will be shorter than expected. Rains will intensify next month and end in November. This means that farmers must grow crops that can reach maturity within the rainy period. One of these fast-growing crops is green or sweet pepper.
This is a bulb vegetable that grows fast. It can be grown across most of the fairly rainy parts of the country. It can be sold in the nearest market or to wholesalers who carry it as far as Kenya. And it pays quite well. For example, an acre of green pepper can give you as much as sh10m-sh12m, against an investment of about sh4m.
At the moment, three bulbs go for sh1,000 in most markets around Kampala. Good quality pepper is also exported to Europe and across the region.
SPRAYING SHOULD BE AFTER EVERY TWO WEEKS
There are diseases that attack pepper. Among these include bacterial spot, blight, phytophthora root rot, grey leaf spot, nematodes etc. It is, therefore, important to spray in order to keep off these attacks.
CHEMICALS TO USE
l Supagro
l Dudu Cyper
l NPK foliar
All these can be acquired from most agro-inputs stores.
However, it is important that you do not carry out any spraying activity, at least 10 days before harvest. This is because the harvest may carry chemical residues that are dangerous to human life and may also affect the products export market.
ESSENTIAL TO FOLLOW GUIDELINES
No one will buy if:
l You use wrong type of spray, this means that you must seek expert knowledge before selecting the pesticide to apply.
lThere is spray residue when you harvest. To avoid this, do not spray at least two weeks before harvesting.
l The plants have pests of any type, this means that management of the crop must be perfect and selection of produce to the market must be well done, to weed out any that have pests.
