The Hindu : Front Page : Green chilli harvester coming

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Tuesday, Aug 05, 2008
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Green chilli harvester coming

Technology that may have resonance for India, too

It could take two years for it to reach farmers
Harvesting chilli by hand is labour-intensive

ALBUQUERQUE: Green chilli farmers in the United States have had it rough over the last several years, dealing with crop diseases, a lack of labour and pressure from foreign imports, although the demand for chilli is increasing. Now, researchers have developed a machine to harvest the crop.

This month, researchers and engineers will conduct the first trials on an implement that harvests and removes the stems of green chilli — in a development that may, down the line, have positive implications for farmers involved in raising similar crops including in India.

“It is the first time we’ve put all the pieces together,” said Stephanie Walker, an agricultural researcher at New Mexico State University. “This is a huge step toward mechanising the green chilli harvest...”

Researchers will use data from the trials to improve the machinery and chilli varieties before the system is used on a wide scale. It could take two years for mechanisation to get into the hands of farmers.

Machines already harvest more than 80 per cent of the red chilli crop in New Mexico and are widely used by growers in West Texas and southeast Arizona. But green chilli is traditionally harvested by hand, requiring a large amount of labour.

Acreage down

Last year, New Mexico’s harvested 11,000 acres of green chilli — the lowest since 1978 — and chilli production declined for the third year in a row to 49,000 tonnes. Acreage might be down again this year because many farmers have reduced their acreage.

“This trend will not reverse until automation is developed for the chilli industry,” said the president of the New Mexico Chilli Association.

The mechanical harvester prototype — a converted John Deere cotton harvester — is the work of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory. Four experimental heads will be attached to the picker along with side equipment for pepper capturing, conveying and storage, said a research agricultural engineer at the lab.

The machine must be aggressive enough to clean the plant stems of peppers but gentle enough to not damage the plant and pods, he said. Researchers also want a machine that is easy on the plants so farmers can have multiple harvests in one season. — AP

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