Recently, Zou Xuexiao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor in Hunan Agricultural University, led a team to Uzbekistan to investigate the local pepper industry. In the Andijan Region of Uzbekistan, 16,000 mu (approximately 1,066 hectares) of pigment peppers have entered the color-changing and red-ripening stage. This is the Chinese pepper variety "Honglong (Red Dragon) 23," with an estimated yield of about 600 kilograms of dried pepper per mu this year.

During the visit, Academician Zou and his team conducted in-depth exchanges with relevant officials from the Ministry of Agriculture Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the agricultural authorities of the Andijan Region, discussing future scientific research cooperation and industry development. The team visited the Tashkent State Agrarian University and the Andijan Institute of Agriculture and Agrotechnologies, and conducted field research at the Tianjiao Hong'an Andijan Pepper Planting Base and the Pepper Processing Industrial Park. The team also investigated the scale and promotion of horticultural crop breeding at the Zhongya Jiuyu Agricultural Development Company in Samarkand.

Why did the Chinese academician and his team travel all the way to Uzbekistan to "plant peppers"? Zou Xuexiao noted that Uzbekistan is an excellent place to grow peppers, with its expansive, flat terrain, fertile soil, dry climate, long periods of sunlight, and large diurnal temperature range, all of which favor the accumulation of nutrients and pigments in peppers, resulting in good appearance and high quality.

Despite these advantageous conditions, the locals only grow a small amount of scattered goat horn peppers and sweet peppers. "The region lacks improved varieties and the corresponding standardized cultivation techniques," said Zou Xuexiao. He noted that the area experiences high summer temperatures and intense sunlight, coupled with a shortage of labor, and the region lacks high-quality pepper varieties that are heat-resistant and suitable for mechanical harvesting. Moving forward, Hunan Agricultural University will collaborate with Uzbekistan to establish the Central Asia International Science and Technology Cooperation Laboratory. Tailored to the local climate and cultivation conditions, the initiative will screen and breed suitable high-quality pepper varieties. The move aims to introduce China's advanced pepper breeding, planting models, and deep processing standards to Central Asia, transforming the region into a major global producer of high-quality peppers and achieving mutually beneficial agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.
 
Translator: Xiao Juan
 
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn