Pepper seed production activates new driving forces for industrial development

Since the end of June, with the technical assistance of experts from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, we have actively organized staff to pick flower buds from high-quality chili parent plants, pull out anthers, wait for the anthers to dry, and then pollinate the chili parent through manual intervention, “said Chen Guoxiang, a technician at the Agricultural and Rural Comprehensive Service Center in Leye Town.

In recent years, Leye Town has actively introduced and cultivated 109 new varieties of chili peppers. Through continuous experimentation, new varieties of chili peppers such as Qiubei chili peppers, Yungan chili peppers 3, Yungan chili peppers 7, and Huixiang chili peppers with high yield and good disease resistance have taken root in Leye Town, and have been promoted and planted by technical personnel, achieving the unique quality of Leye chili peppers that are “fragrant but not spicy, red and shiny”, which has established the Leye chili pepper brand.

Since the beginning of this year, Leye Town has focused on improving the technical level of chili seed production, improving the quality of chili peppers from the source, and actively cultivating 15 new varieties of chili peppers in conjunction with the Shuanggou Village chili seed production base renovation and improvement project. Currently, the growth is good.

Pepper seed production is a ‘technical activity’, and every day we need more than 20 villagers to come to the greenhouse to pick and pollinate chili peppers, “said Dong Xuecui, a manager of Shuanggou Village Pepper Seed Production Base. According to Dong Xuecui, there is a labor demand for chili transplanting, intercropping management, and chili harvesting in the base. Nearby villagers come to the base to work during their leisure time.

I can earn around 100 yuan a day, which can take care of the elderly and children, as well as provide subsidies for household use, “said Yan Miqing, a villager in Shuanggou Village. She used to work outside the village and was far away from home. Now that the village has a chili base, she can come to the chili base to work and her income is guaranteed. Experts and technicians often provide on-site guidance on how to transplant chili seedlings, weed and pest control, and many villagers have learned chili planting techniques.

The Shuanggou Village Chili Pepper Seed Production Base not only provides employment opportunities and increases people’s income, but also achieves a transformation from planting local traditional chili peppers to planting foreign varieties of chili peppers, and then to planting new local varieties of chili peppers. It further breaks the bottleneck of seed production, reduces seed costs, promotes the organized, large-scale, and intensive development of the chili industry, and activates a new driving force for the development of Leye chili peppers industry.