Stephanie Walker will lead a four-year project to develop a mechanically harvestable green chile resistant to Phytophthora capsici.

Adriana M. Chávez, New Mexico State University

LAS CRUCES - New Mexico State University has always been at the forefront of green chile research and innovation. An NMSU researcher is continuing that legacy with a grant to develop a disease-resistant variety of green chile.

Stephanie Walker, NMSU professor and Extension vegetable specialist, is the director of a project to develop a green chile that is not only mechanically harvestable but also resistant to Phytophthora capsici, a disease that significantly impacts chile production. This spring, the project received a $759,000 grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to fund the project over the next four years.

Walker is collaborating with Michael Mazourek, an associate professor and vegetable breeder at Cornell University, to combine resources from their respective programs to incorporate Phytophthora capsici to the new green chile type. The goal, Walker said, is to develop a crop that can be mechanically harvestable, which saves on labor costs, as well as resistant to a disease that can wipe out entire fields.

“They’ve been working on disease resistance in bell peppers, and one thing that we can really use in all of our cultivars was Phytophthora capsici resistance,” Walker said. “There’s been a scourge of the disease in New Mexico dating back to when Fabián García was breeding chile (in the early 1900s). We’ve had trouble getting durable resistance to it due to some complexities when breeding. Michael and Molly Jahn came up with a new strategy and introduced stable resistance to the disease in bell pepper lines.”

Walker said after speaking with Mazourek, she decided to apply his strategy to the NuMex Odyssey green chile type she developed for mechanical harvesting. NuMex Odyssey boasts a higher mechanically harvested yield and significantly less field fruit loss than standard commercial green chile varieties. It’s also mild and flavorful, which many consumers prefer.

“It’s really exciting. There’s going to be a lot of molecular work, and we’ll be doing physical field trials,” Walker said. “A team from Cornell will be coming to NMSU to participate in our mechanical harvest trials, and we will be sending graduate students to their labs to learn about their genomic procedures.”

According to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, New Mexico produces roughly 77% of chile peppers in the United States and is ranked first in chile production nationally. The value of New Mexico chile production in 2023 was estimated at $41.5 million, underlining the importance of the tasty crop to the state’s economy.

“Not only is green chile economically very important, but it’s also our heart and soul and our pride,” Walker said. “Chile is just part of who New Mexico is, and we do everything we can to support and strengthen the industry.”

Adriana M. Chávez writes for New Mexico State University Marketing and Communications and can be reached at 575-646-1957, or by email at adchavez@nmsu.edu.