近距离内射合集

Stephanie Walker moved to New Mexico from Pennsylvania as a child in the 1970s 鈥� marking the first time she tried the state鈥檚 green chile.

鈥淚 think with many people when they first move to New Mexico, the hot chile is a bit shocking,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淏ut then as you start eating it, you become accustomed to it and you really just can鈥檛 do without it anymore 鈥� and that鈥檚 definitely what happened to me.鈥�

What Walker did not know is that her early love for chile would foster a more than 40-year career researching the plant. Her latest project? Developing a disease-resistant green chile thanks to a $759,000 grant.

The four-year award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture is fueling her research at New Mexico State University, where she hopes to find a way to protect green chile peppers from Phytophthora capsici 鈥� a soil-borne water mold that attacks the plant, causing it to rot.

鈥淧eople in Albuquerque, as the rest of the state, love their chile, so it鈥檚 going to be one more step in making sure that we have a really vibrant, sustainable chile pepper,鈥� Walker said.

New Mexico produces roughly 77% of chile peppers grown in the U.S., securing the first-place title for national chile production, according to the. In 2023, the state鈥檚 chile crop was valued at an estimated $41.5 million.

Walker鈥檚 grant was awarded before the Trump administration鈥檚 proposed funding reductions for fiscal year 2027 could take effect, she said.

The administration鈥檚 FY27, proposed this spring, called for a $510 million cut to NIFA鈥檚 grant programs. Congress has not finalized funding levels for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in October, though an early House committee proposal scaled back the cuts significantly.

鈥淎 lot of things have changed, and so grant funding has been much harder to come by, and so I was very pleased,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淚 know the reviewers really thought this was an excellent project that would help consumers, growers and the industry.鈥�

Chile breeders have long tried to develop disease-resistant peppers, but the complicated genetics have made it a difficult pursuit, Walker said. As part of the research, she is using a technique developed in partnership with Michael Mazourek, an associate professor and vegetable breeder at Cornell University, that crossbreeds different chile varieties to achieve desirable traits.

After speaking with Mazourek, Walker decided to apply his strategy to the NuMex Odyssey, a green chile variety she developed for mechanical harvesting. NuMex Odyssey already yields more per mechanical harvest and loses significantly less fruit in the field compared to standard commercial green chile varieties, she said. The breed is mild and flavorful, a quality many consumers prefer.

Disease harms overall production, damaging a crop鈥檚 profitability. While growers can sometimes turn to chemical treatment like fungicides, Walker said those solutions come with other risks.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always better to have natural genetic resistance to diseases we are facing,鈥� she said.

Chemical treatments are not efficient, she said. Once Phytophthora capsici exists in a field, it can be slowed but not stopped, so a genetically resistant variety would be a 鈥渉uge boon鈥� for growers.

鈥淚 am very excited and am looking forward to successfully completing it and having this new line that will be available for growers,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great news for anyone who loves New Mexico chile, which I think is most of us.鈥�

Keelin Fisher is a business reporter for the Journal. You can reach her at kfisher@abqjournal.com.