BATHINDA, Sept. 9 -- Flash floods, which have inundated large tracts of agricultural lands in Ferozepur, are likely to hurt Punjab's hub of chilli cultivation in the border district.

Farmers, who had invested in horticulture for rabi crop diversification for the last few years, say their economic condition is shattered after floods damaged their standing rice crop, leaving them with hardly any resources for the next crop of chilli.

The season of the nine-month chilli crop commences from October. Farmers said that the market-driven chilli farming is a labour-intensive crop involving a high investment of up to Rs.1 lakh per acre.

According to the state horticulture department's data, nearly 12,000 acres of land in a cluster of villages, ...