A field day for a crop that’s essential to the flavor of India

The WorldVeg South Asia office sizzled in the sunlight from 26-28 March 2018, when 74 representatives from more than 36 seed companies came to Hyderabad, India to view the performance of WorldVeg chili peppers in the field. Although most of the pepper lines were planted for the purpose of increasing the Center’s seed stocks, the grow-out provided a good opportunity for Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) – WorldVeg Breeding Consortium members to assess the plants for vigor, heat tolerance, and pest and disease resistance.

“Seed Production Officer Lucy Bharati Sarkar, Scientific Officer Srinivasarao Kummari, Field Attendant Kumar S. Ravi, and the South Asia team had well-maintained fields to show,” said Derek Barchenger, WorldVeg Breeding Postdoc. Derek observed that some of the lines (AVPP1346, AVPP1357, AVPP1325, AVPP1339, AVPP1371, and AVPP1378) appeared to have some level of heat tolerance, with fruit set at temperatures reaching 47.5°C under low tunnels. AVPP1327 is performing particularly well in the Hyderabad trials; it’s a vigorous line with high fruit set and no disease symptoms.

The dry chili belt

While in India Derek toured India’s dry red chili belt, visiting with farmers in their fields and private sector plant breeders at their research farms. “Every village I visited grew a different fruit type with different qualities,” he said.

He saw on-farm drying and grading, cold storage facilities, and the world’s largest dry chili market. “The primary problem facing chili farmers is Begomovirus,” Derek said. “Every field I visited had from 30 to 100% incidence, resulting in decreased yield, and small, poor-quality fruit.”

Many seed companies are making progress on breeding for Begomovirus resistance. The general approach they use is to collect landraces grown in hot-spots for the disease and conduct multi-location trials; the lines with resistance in all locations were used as parents in their breeding programs. A few companies are using WorldVeg germplasm as sources of resistance.

Derek noted that chili is often grown adjacent to cotton fields. He suspects cotton is serving as an alternative host for whitefly, the Begomovirus vector. When cotton is sprayed with pesticide, the whitefly move to the chili crop, increasing the disease incidence and severity.

Farmers sort and dry their chili on the ground or on tarps, potentially exposing the fruit to Aspergillus and aflatoxin production. Most farmers had cull piles of about ~10-20% of their total harvest—the result of anthracnose, the second most important disease of chili.

Derek, Plant Physiologist Bindumadhava Hanumantha Rao, and other South Asia staff met with many researchers and partners during the journey to discuss potential collaborations. Paprika Oleos in Bangalore, an extraction company, previously conducted an integrated pest management (IPM) training project with WorldVeg. Farmers learned IPM and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), and if they followed the protocols, Paprika Oleos would pay a premium for their chili (₹110 per kg compared to ₹80 per kg). However, this year Paprika Oleos is finding that although the farmers are correctly following the protocols, the chili still has high levels of pesticide residue. The company is curious about the source of the pesticide, which could be coming via drift from nearby cotton or maize fields or irrigation water.

Paprika Oleos is part of the Chili Growers Welfare Association (CHIGA), which develops projects to support and train chili farmers in all aspects of chili production. This includes developing village-based farmer groups, composing village resource (water bodies, infrastructure, disease pressure, etc.) lists, obtaining external support for postharvest structures, technology demonstration and disseminating, conducting GAP and IPM training, and conducting regional varietal trails to help farmers in cultivar selection. “CHIGA operates in an area of 3,000 km² and reaches 3000 farmers in Virudhunagar, Ramnad, and Tuticorin districts of Tamil Nadu,” Derek said. “They could be a good training partner for future WorldVeg activities.”

Story and photos: Derek Barchenger