First Report on Homestead-Based Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) Gardening at Jaintiapur of Sylhet District in Bangladesh

Black pepper (Piper nigrum), famous as “Black Gold” and also called the “king of spices,” is widely used as a spice throughout the country. It is mainly cultivated in the North-Eastern part of Bangladesh, where the gardening features, beneficiary output, and situational analysis of black pepper in the homestead areas are less explored. Hence, a study was conducted from August 2018 to July 2019 in the Nijpat and Jaintiapur unions of the Jaintiapur upazila of the Sylhet district in Bangladesh to investigate existing gardening features of black pepper cultivation and how it could be a potential option for rural farmers to improve their living standards. A structural questionnaire was prepared after the pilot test containing six aspects, viz. demographic features (age, education, homestead size, family size, annual family income), black pepper pre-plantation features (variety, seedling source, propagation method, seedling age, planting time, plant density per supporting plant, preferred pit size), post plantation practices or features (watering, nutrition supply, pruning, use of a fence, the pattern of the garden, the occurrence of pest infestation, pesticide use, supporting plants), flowering and fruiting information (first flowering time, flowering month, fruit harvesting time, harvesting method, yield range), post-harvest information (processing, marketing channel, pricing), valuation survey (beneficiary output, possible constraints, SWOT analysis). Data were collected through personal interviews with 70 randomly selected respondents who have direct/indirect experience in black pepper gardening. A SWOT analysis was conducted to analyze the growers’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Most respondents (57.14%) collected seedlings from their own output; 94.29% utilized stem cuttings for black pepper multiplication and planted primarily between July and August (54.29 %). The majority of responders (71.43%) transplanted two to three seedlings per supporting tree, keeping a pit size of primarily 45×45×45 cm³ (54.29%). It was found that farmers preferred neither chemical fertilizer nor manure (54.29%), watering (65.71%), no use of fence (91.43%), standards (100%), no pruning and weeding (100%), pesticide use (77.14%) in black pepper garden, generally. The first flowering took 3 to 4 years (65.71%), May to June (91.43%) was the flowering month, fruit harvesting time was found to be November to December (100%), harvesting method was done manually (100%), and yield was 2.0 kg supporting plant^-1 (62.86%). Respondents followed the conventional method of processing. The analysis showed that there was about Tk. 682.5 kg^-1 pricing difference between farmers and Megashops. The constraints were the lack of appropriate knowledge, government assistance, soil moisture during the dry season, and high-quality planting materials. Farmers acknowledged the beneficiary output of black pepper, where 88.57% were satisfied with their generated outcomes as they believed it could provide environmental benefits (100%), medicinal value (77.14%), and no health hazards (100%). Farmers believed that in terms of environmental benefits, black pepper gardening provided soil improvement, increased amenities, oxygen release, and carbon dioxide release. Situational analysis revealed a vast scope of black pepper gardening, which could be a potential option for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Hence, this ground needs more focus and further research initiatives to increase its potential to be effective.