Pepper farmers gifted with assistance in closing resource gaps

Reflecting on the challenges faced over the past year, Anthony Black, a farmer from St Catherine, is one of many recipients who shared his gratitude after receiving a significant agricultural gift aimed at supporting his pepper-farming efforts.

Held at the Bureau of Standards on Monday, the ‘Improving Phytosanitary, Food Safety and Market Access Opportunities along the Hot Pepper Value Chain in Jamaica’ project provided critical equipment to farmers, extension officers, and quarantine regulators.

The project, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,  identified key resource gaps through a sector-wide assessment and is addressing them with targeted support to strengthen pest monitoring and plant health systems.

For farmers like Black, the challenges of adverse weather conditions, up to December last year, especially from Hurricane Beryl, left their hot pepper crops nearly devastated.

“It was very challenging, you know. The peppers went through a lot,” he explained. “But, you know, as determined farmers, we fought and we did what we had to do to get something in it for the Christmas holidays.”

Now, with advanced surveillance tools in hand, Black feels better equipped to face future challenges.

“I’ll be able to monitor pests I couldn’t even see with the naked eye and better manage soil nutrients. It’s a great achievement, and it will only go towards me building more in terms of producing more quality hot pepper for both the local and export market in Jamaica,” he said.

Black also praised the beauty of not only the hot pepper sector, but agriculture on a whole.

“Farming, in general, is the best so Jamaican spice and condiments is needed worldwide, so we need more investors in it. We need more people to get intimate with the soil.”

Still, extreme weather is just the tip of the iceberg as Damian Rowe, plant quarantine and produce inspector, said many destructive pests, diseases, viruses, and mites continue to threaten Jamaica’s pepper production.

“Sometimes you’ll see bacterial spots. It will affect the leaves, and they become brown,” Rowe explained.

One particularly troubling virus is the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, which has long been present in Jamaica.

“This is what causes the pepper leaves to curl. And the fruit, they are totally misshaped,” Rowe described.

Infected peppers can appear elongated, bent, and deformed, severely affecting marketability.

Rowe also explained the technical importance of this equipment, warning that “there are pests that affect up to 80 per cent to 100 per cent of production if not managed properly. For pepper, the pests of concern for us are trips that affect the little succulents and damage the leaves and the tissue of the plant. So early detection is primary. And we encourage when farmers see something to notify Plant Quality, notify your other extension office”.

Rowe compared farming to human sickness – the sooner it is detected, the less strain it will have on the sufferer’s pockets and resources.

He also cautioned against travellers bringing seeds and plants from overseas, noting how one pest could devastate entire sectors, costing millions.

BUT, WHY FOCUS ON HOT PEPPERS?

According to the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), choosing Jamaica’s hot pepper sector was deliberate.

“This was our first project focusing on the hot pepper value chain,” said Pablo Jenkins, a representative from the project donor. “Hot peppers hold strong cultural ties and market potential for Jamaica.”

Beyond export opportunities, the donation also aims to ensure that local processors have a consistent supply of safe, high-quality peppers, reducing the need for imported raw materials.

Another significant factor was the high level of collaboration observed among Jamaican stakeholders.

“We observed that it was a real collaborative effort between the private sector being involved, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bureau of Standards, RADA,” he said. “We thought that that was a very positive feature of having this kind of collaborative effort where everyone is brought together to help improve the sanitary capacity of the sector overall in order to increase market access to new potential markets.”

Jenkins also explained how the donation could benefit the hot pepper sector both locally and internationally, particularly by addressing a past shortage of locally grown peppers.

“The idea was, if I recall correctly, that in order to supply the hot pepper sauce processing industry, at some point there wasn’t even enough local supply to supply the processors with the hot peppers in order to produce their hot sauce. So this was a way of also increasing production locally in order to not have peppers from other regions to come,” he said.

“It’s all kind of a win-win for everyone, both in terms of exporting the raw peppers, because it’s an important commodity to export, but also to improve the availability of good-quality, safe peppers for local consumption and local processing as well,” Jenkins continued.

As for the future, the STDF hopes that this project can inspire growth in other sectors.

“It’s kind of part of the reason why STDF funds these types of projects,” Jenkins said. “We obviously don’t have many funds. We’re a small facility, so we try to choose new, innovative projects that can potentially be expanded.”

The STDF itself may not fund further expansions, indicating that it hopes that the foundation laid by this initiative will inspire future projects.

“The idea is that now that the different partners have come together, that they can learn from this process, learn what has worked well, what hasn’t worked so well, and come up with new approaches and new potential projects, either funded by other bilateral donors, other multilateral donors, or even by the Government or sectors themselves,” Jenkins said. “Take lessons learned, and apply it to other potential models.”

A CAREFULLY TARGETED APPROACH

The selection of beneficiaries such as farmers, RADA officers, and plant quarantine inspectors was strategic, said Tafara Smith of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica.

“We used the radar database of the pepper producers to help us to identify which location, the high pepper-producing areas, and the low pepper-producing areas because while some people have a little farm, they don’t think their farm is a business. But for those persons, that farming is their business, their livelihood then you definitely need to target those people,” she said.

The collaboration involved several partners, including the Plant Quarantine and Produce Inspection Branch (PQPI), the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, and the Bodles Research Centre, each bringing expertise critical to safeguarding plant health, food safety, and market access.

The project didn’t stop at RADA and Plant Quarantine. Other branches of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, including the Bodles Research Centre, were vital to its success.

“If you do not get the seedling right, then you’re going to have a problem in the future because if you plant seeds that are infected, when you grow a plant from that, you have an infected plant, you have an infected product,” Smith warned.

The project itself emerged from a larger vision to normalise funding and investment in Jamaica’s agricultural sector.

“If countries like South Africa are having their challenges ... and they are benefiting from this project, why not Jamaica?” she said.

The training phase was completed prior to the equipment handover, ensuring that all recipients were fully prepared to utilise the tools effectively in the field. Continuous efforts are also to be made to ensure the training implementation and the sustainability of the project.

With stronger pest surveillance and healthier crops, Jamaica’s hot pepper farmers are better positioned than ever to spice up global markets, one pepper at a time.

mickalia.kington@gleanerjm.com