Hokkaido and Saitama complete Syngenta’s global offer of California peppers with resistances.
2020 is an important year for Syngenta because it is presenting a total offer of pepper varieties with resistances for all cycles and in all colours.
At one of its large-scale field days, held at the beginning of the year in Almeria, attended by around five hundred people, the company presented two new materials to complete the red California pepper range for the late segment: Hokkaido and Saitama.
With the slogan ‘Don’t remove your shell!’ the seed company is using resistances to give greater safety and profitability to pepper producers. And the fact is that both varieties have resistance to powdery mildew and nematodes, encouraging the development of plants with very strong root systems and therefore, that have the capacity to last over a very long cycle with excellent vegetable health.
Alejandro Pascual, Iberian Pepper Product Development Specialist at Syngenta, explains that these materials share important characteristics such as size uniformity throughout the cycle, absence of micro-cracking and silvering and the toughness and firmness of their fruit, qualities that promote their quality, extending their shelf life.
The significant difference between the two lies in their plantation dates. Hokkaido (medium-late segment) is indicated for dates from the 25th of July to the 10th of August, and Saitama (late), from the 1st to the 15th of August.
With these new developments, Syngenta is reaffirming its commitment to sustainability, which last year meant the start-up of a 2,000 million dollar accelerated innovation programme in technologies to fight the effects of climate change. The company’s R&D is focused on aspects as important as waste reduction throughout the chain. Since the beginning of this programme, the development and appearance of pests and diseases and their intensification due to higher temperatures, are another aspect to beat. And the company is doing this by using innovation and development in the genetic improvement of materials.
