ALBUQUERQUE — Mother Nature really had it out for some of New Mexico’s chile farmers this season.
A combination of too much rain, wind, hail, insects and hungry animals made it tough for farmers — especially in Luna County and the Las Uvas Valley in southern New Mexico — to produce their fiery crop.
Now that the 2008 harvest has wrapped up, early results indicate the chile yield is down 20 to 30 percent, said Stephanie Walker, extension vegetable specialist and chile breeding program researcher at New Mexico State University.
“It was another very challenging year for chile,” Walker said in a telephone interview. “The climactic conditions have taken their toll . . . and in some areas it caused serious devastation to yields.”
For the third straight year, excess moisture led to the spread of bacterial leaf spot, a destructive disease that causes the plant to lose leaves and not produce peppers.
Walker said “hot spots” for leaf spot this season included the Deming area and eastern portions of the state.
In Luna County, 25 percent of the crop was affected by disease and parasites, said Jack Blandford, county agriculture extension agent.
Luna County is the state’s top chile producing county. It’s also home to Border Foods in Deming, one of the world’s largest processors of green chile and jalapeño peppers.
Border Foods filled orders and compensated for some of the shortfall by growing a small crop in Mexico, said Marvin Clary, field supervisor and agronomist with Border Foods.
