By themselves or as an ingredient in a variety of foods, including salsa,
America's top-selling condiment, peppers have found a warm spot in the
hearts and stomachs of U.S. consumers.
But while U.S. Department of Agriculture figures show consumption of fresh
peppers at an all-time high, only a fraction of these are grown
domestically.

Currently more than 70 percent of all fresh peppers consumed in the U.S. are
imported from Mexico, and another 18 percent are imported from Canada,
according to USDA data.

"Ironically, our domestic fresh pepper production has been declining
steadily in a region renowned for its love of peppers ? the American
Southwest," said Dr. Daniel Leskovar, a vegetable physiologist with Texas
AgriLife Research.

To help Southwestern pepper producers perk up pepper production, Leskovar
and other Texas A&M System scientists and agriculture experts have teamed up
to develop several new adapted pepper plant hybrids.

Leskovar said U.S. fresh pepper production has declined significantly in the
past decade due to global competition, labor issues, inconsistent market
prices and inefficient agricultural practices.

"These factors, along with drought, plant disease and other challenges that
are prevalent in the Southwest, have made it difficult for producers in
Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona to grow peppers profitably," he
said.

"Pepper production in the Southwest is often marred by drought, heat and
plant diseases, which cause severe plant stress and reduce marketable yields
by up to 50 percent," said Leskovar, who works at the Texas AgriLife
Research and Extension Center in Uvalde.

Leskovar said that the objective of this research is to "maximize pepper
production efficiency and improve the quality of specialty peppers so
producers in these four states can increase their profitability."

"We developed several new cultivars that were more well adapted to climatic
conditions and plant diseases of the Southwest and to U.S. consumer
preferences," he said.

The team has already bred several new cultivars of jalapeno, serrano,
Habanero, poblano ancho, bell and other fresh pepper plants.

"Most of the breeding and selection of these new pepper hybrids has been
done in test plots at the Uvalde center," Leskovar said. "Uvalde is a good
test area because the soil and climate are similar to many other parts of
Texas and the Southwestern U.S. where peppers are now being grown."

"At the same time, we've been developing these cultivars to produce higher
yields of peppers with the size, shape, color, capsaicin (the active "heat"
ingredient) level and nutritional content American consumers want," said Dr.
Kevin Crosby, a plant breeding expert with AgriLife Research in College
Station and key team member.

Leskovar and Crosby are both affiliated with the Texas A&M Vegetable and
Fruit Improvement Center, part of the university's department of
horticultural sciences.

Crosby, who received national attention by developing a milder version of
the notoriously hot Habanero pepper, said the new hybrids are meeting or
exceeding expectations for appearance, yield and quality.

"These peppers not only look good, they taste great and the plants produce
impressive amounts of fruit, all of which should please both the producer
and the consumer," he said.

The team has established the first-known poblano pepper production in Texas
through a partnership with San Antonio-based Constanzo Farms and is
collaborating with other large producers in New Mexico and Arizona.

They have licensed two hot pepper cultivars in the past three years and have
provided stock seed for commercial production, as well as providing large
quantities of trial seed to pepper growers in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Though some of the team's efforts began as far back as three years ago,
"results have had to be replicable and it has taken time to conduct trials,
collaborate with growers, packers and processors and retailers, and get
their feedback," Leskovar said.

Along with cultivar development, the team also is investigating strategies
for overcoming other challenges to Southwestern pepper production. Some of
these include working with regional producers on more efficient irrigation
and cropping techniques, and developing a cropping system more suitable to
machine harvesting.

"After drought and disease, probably the biggest obstacle to pepper
production in the Southwest is labor," Leskovar said. "Pepper harvesting is
very labor-intensive because it's done almost exclusively by hand. And it's
also difficult for producers to find adequate labor when it's needed."

The team already has tested numerous jalapeno, green chile and Habanero
lines in Texas and New Mexico to determine suitability for machine
harvesting."We've developed pepper plants that have less foliage, bear more
fruit and require less labor-intensive harvest," Leskovar said.

He added that the new cultivars also are being bred for higher amounts of
vitamin C, phytochemicals and antioxidants.

"Peppers are a good source of dietary fiber and contain a number of
vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are known to promote human
health," Leskovar said. "And research on capsaicin, the ingredient that
makes peppers hot, has shown it has some positive uses for human health and
wellness."

According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, capsaicin is
already used as a "topical anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory agent" and
is "generally recognized as a powerful local stimulant with no narcotic
effect."

Additional research indicates capsaicin may have cancer-fighting properties
and facilitate insulin production. It also has been identified as a useful
pharmacological component in treating chronic pain.

Crosby added that increased domestic production of fresh peppers might help
address another "health" issue ? consumer concerns about product safety.

"Between high U.S. standards relating to product safety and the closer
proximity of production to the point of use, consumers will be able to feel
more secure about the fresh pepper product they're buying," he said.

"We're hoping our efforts will lead to a reduction in cost of production and
an increase in the yield and quality of peppers so growers in the Southwest
can remain competitive," Leskovar said. "Since people in the Southwestern
U.S. consume such significant quantities of peppers, it seems only right
that producers in the region should derive an economic benefit from
supplying them."
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