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AN UPDATE ON STUDIES CARRIED OUT ON HOT PEPPER
BY CARDI UNITS IN 1999
Hot pepper (Capsicum chinense) is an important
crop in the economy of several CARICOM countries. Since 1989, CARDI
has had an ongoing programme of research and development aimed at
supporting the hot pepper industry in its member states.
The Hot Pepper Breeding Programme begun in 1996 and
is coordinated out of the Barbados Unit which is CARDI's Centre for
Research on Plant Genetic Resources. It is aimed at lending a sharper
focus accelerating the production of improved hot pepper cultivars
for the Caribbean. The primary beneficiaries remain the CARDI member
countries.
Regional Collaboration
There are eight main research groups functioning
in a coordinated network in the region and focusing on hot pepper
improvement. These are:
| Entity |
Activities |
| CARDI-Antigua |
Seed technology; production, processing,
storage, quality testing, packaging and dissemination of seed.
|
| CARDI-Barbados |
Genetic improvement; agronomic improvement;
product development and market testing; training.
|
| UWI-Cave Hill, Barbados |
Molecular analyses; screening for resistance
against diseases; resistance breeding and chemical analyses
for pungency, etc.
|
| MARD-Barbados |
Support through infrastructure; land and
access to professional skills.
|
| CARDI-Dominica |
Post harvest and Quality Assurance Systems
|
| CARDI-Jamaica |
Integrated Pest Management on hot pepper;
business systems development, etc.
|
| MoA-Jamaica |
Resistance breeding and agronomy.
|
| UWI-Mona, Jamaica |
Characterization of virus diseases; characterization
of the whitefly vector of virus diseases; molecular analyses
of hot pepper germplasm; training.
|
Production systems design, testing and validation
are carried out in Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St
Lucia and St Kitts/Nevis
This regional linkage promotes the efficient utilization
of resources and ensures the quickest way to achieve the goals of
improving the regional hot pepper industry. The network is to be widened
to take in all the national efforts and consequently will help to
extend the new technologies.
Specific Objectives
| 1. |
Improve the West Indies Red cultivar through the extraction
of breeding lines with more homogenous fruit and agronomic characters
such as prolificacy and high general adaptability |
| 2. |
Purify and stabilize the most marketable Caribbean landraces |
| 3. |
To breed resistances to viral diseases into the Scotch Bonnet
and the West Indies Red |
| 4. |
Breed new improved cultivars from the Caribbean hot pepper landraces
and other relevant germplasm |
| 5. |
Integrate improved germplasm into hot pepper Business Systems
encompassing farmers, processors and exporters across the region
|
| 6. |
Develop production systems |
| 7. |
Further improve the seed production system to supply farmers
with quality seed |
Methods
| 1. |
Establish a Hot pepper Germplasm Collection primarily to conserve
the Caribbean hot pepper landraces and other relevant germplasm
from world collections |
| 2. |
Improve the landraces through a recurrent mass
selection procedure and select for homogenous fruit and agronomic
characters such as high general adaptability and resistances/tolerances
to pests and diseases
|
| 3. |
Extraction of different improved breeding lines from West Indies
Red through Recurrent Mass Selection coupled with Pedigree Methods
(Progeny Rows) |
| 4. |
Backcross Scotch Bonnet and West Indies Red to the Caribbean
bird peppers in order to make them resistant to viral diseases |
| 5. |
Diallel analyses of the 10 best Caribbean landraces to identify
the better parents and better parental combinations. |
| 6. |
Carry out component agronomic research on plant nutrition, water
use, plant population densities and test production systems, across
the region. |
| 7. |
Package the advanced selections made in Barbados into regional
tests and continue their evaluation in the hot pepper producing
countries. |
| 8. |
Strengthen the Seed Production facility in Antigua. |
An update on studies carried out can be found in the CARDI Annual
Technical Reports 1999 for the countries indicated below:
Antigua
Barbados
Belize
Dominica
Jamaica
The work done by CARDI Units in Barbados and Jamaica has been documented in several papers which are presented as follows:
Papers published by CARDI Barbados
Unit
Papers published by CARDI Jamaica
Unit
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