Mechanized chili harvesting takes hold in New Mexico

LAKE ARTHUR, N.M. — A handful of farm laborers are busy at work on a warm day in mid-November, helping harvest 140 acres of Cecil Conklin's red chili crop. But at this southeastern New Mexico farm, the workers aren't stooped over hand-picking the peppers — they're driving Conklin's mechanical chili harvester as it plows through row after row of chili plants, methodically pulling off the peppers.

"The machine harvests about seven acres a day," said Conklin, one of the first farmers in New Mexico to make the switch to mechanical harvesting more than a decade ago. "That's about the same acreage that it took 40-50 workers to pick each day before we had the machine."

Mechanization "was forced on us — we couldn't find the labor. Now, chili definitely has to be mechanically harvested in order for farmers to make money," he said.

Increased market pressure from foreign chili imports, declining prices and lack of labor have made it tough for chili farmers to thrive. Using machines to harvest the state's signature crop is the only way the $400 million chili industry can stay competitive, said Terry Crawford, professor of agriculture business and economics at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

"Time is critical. New Mexico has no more than five years to get competitive. People in the industry need to see the light at the end of the tunnel to stick with it and not say, 'Gee, I'll start growing something else,"' Crawford said. "We have to become more efficient and cut labor costs significantly."

In New Mexico, more than 80 percent of the red chili crop is mechanically harvested, mainly in the southeastern part of the state. The harvest method also is being used increasingly by red chili growers in west Texas and southeast Arizona.

Stephanie Walker, vegetable specialist with NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service, said many chili farmers in eastern New Mexico found the transition to mechanical harvesting a little easier than those in the Rio Grande Valley corridor because they could rely on their knowledge from growing other mechanically harvested crops.

"Many of those farmers previously grew cotton, and they knew how to machine-harvest a crop. They used that expertise to make the chili harvest work, and they already knew how to harvest without large pools of labor," Walker said.

Foreign competition also is driving the change to mechanical harvesting, as farmers try desperately to compete with chili importers — such as China, India and Peru — that pay significantly lower wages.