Nursiah, a 52-year-old housewife, has kept a habit of planting chili at her house. For her, it helps thrift some money as she does not need to buy the spicy ingredient popular in the Indonesian diet.

“I have two pots — one for red chili and one for bird’s eye chili. Each pot can bear up to 15 chilies per week so I can save some for other needs,” said Nursiah, who also heads an integrated health post (Posyandu) in Depok.

People like Nursiah are expected to drive the “50 million chili planting movement” launched by the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday, a movement that will provide a major boost to the annual domestic production of chili, which stands at around 1 million tons of red chili and 800,000 tons of red bird’s eye chili.

Under the program, the government will distribute a large number of seeds and seedlings across the archipelago with a target of growing 50 million plants next year.

In the past a similar program, which also engaged institutions like the Family Welfare Movement (PKK), had been carried out, but to minor results.

A few factors, such as lack of time, limited house space and pest attacks, contributed to the program’s failure.

Minister Amran Sulaiman said there should be no reason to avert planting as house yard space in Indonesia, which is mostly left untouched, accounts to more than 10 million hectares.

“Even if you don’t have space at home you still shouldn’t make excuses because we can still use polybags,” he said.

“You can ask your area leader for the seedlings and ask assistance on how you can plant it and deal with pests,” Amran added.

Based on the ministry’s estimate, one chili plant can produce fruit after one to two months and can generate at least a half kilogram of chili each year.

As the plant will naturally last for one year, the ministry plans to launch a similar program next year to sustain the culture.

The target to expand the chili planting culture is expected to flourish particularly in households. Therefore, with 20 plants each, one house can harvest 10 kilograms of chili annually, the level considered sufficient to prevent a household from buying the raw food in the market again.

Indonesians consumed 2.7 kg of mixed chilies in 2014, according to Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data.

Although chili peppers do not normally contribute to inflationary pressure, it can sometimes push up consumer prices due to disruption of supply.

Chili prices have soared to Rp 80,000 (US$6.01) per kg this week, almost triple the regular price of around Rp 30,000 per kg.

Amid this situation, Amran was optimistic that the program will succeed. For the past three years, the government has successfully avoided any chili imports, the ministry claimed.

By producing 10 kg of chili per year, each household can save Rp 500,000 annually and with 67 million households nationwide, this will allow savings of more than Rp 30 trillion, Amran said.

If the movement succeeds in the long term, the ministry even expects to export the rest of the chilies produced by big-scale growers.

Incentives are prepared to help the program succeed. PKK chairwoman Erni Guntarti Tjahjo Kumolo said her institution will reward Rp 1 billion to areas with successful household chili production as of October next year.

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