ALEX Sybron’s career has taken him from playing one of Jamaica’s most popular sports to working on improving the quality and sustainability of one of its hottest export commodities — pepper.

Now 33 years old, Sybron was well on his way to a career as a professional cricketer until he discovered research in agricultural science and moved from being an all-rounder on the cricket field to a multi-skilled technician in the agriculture field.

“My mother said that if I had a major injury my career could possibly be over, and I should focus more on my education. I was always good at biology so I further pursued it, and then I realised that I had a great interest in plants,” he said.

That interest has propelled him to being chief plant breeding officer and acting senior research director of the Crop Research Unit at the Government’s Bodles Research Station. Working closely with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Sybron and his young colleagues have the mammoth task of ensuring the availability of disease- and pest-free seeds.

“It is important for farmers to begin growing with the best planting material. This will give you an advantage to increase the crop’s productivity,” he said.

These practices won’t keep the pests away altogether but when pests only attack crops after being planted, there are more options to combat the infestations.

A key mission of the research station is to produce certified foundation seeds for one of Jamaica’s prime local and international export commodities — hot peppers.

Jamaican hot peppers are world-renowned for their heat ratings and flavour profile. Jamaica currently ranks about halfway up the table of the world’s top hot pepper-producing countries, with the tonnage having increased rapidly over recent years despite Hurricane Beryl, which hit the country in July 2024.

However, production challenges and declining quality have been affecting the demand and competitiveness of the signature produce.

“The seed industry in Jamaica is currently highly unregulated. This creates the opportunity for anyone to save seeds which may be of low quality and introduce them into the seed distribution system,” Sybron explained.

This can impact both the yield and quality, as can planting peppers too close together. This practice increases humidity and reduces airflow, creating favourable conditions for fungal and bacterial diseases.

Implementing best practices has been an important focus of training sessions, which FAO has conducted for Jamaican farmers like Megan White. She’s been growing peppers for two decades but still acquired useful knowledge on how to plant them, how far from each other they should be, and how to treat various types of plant diseases.

Then there are increasingly frequent and extreme climate events like Hurricane Beryl which, according to the island’s farmers, wiped out up to 90 per cent of their hot pepper production.

“Since Beryl it [production] has been very, very low and really challenging because of the weather,” said White.

However she said by using the new techniques she’s acquired she’s still harvesting three or four times more peppers per tree than before.

“We are living the reality of climate change. Plant breeding and plant adaptation means selecting those crops with resilient traits such as drought tolerance, heat tolerance, salt tolerance, et cetera,” said Sybron. “The varieties selected or bred with these traits will give an advantage to the farmer in terms of production, productivity and maintenance cost.”

Perhaps the common thread linking back to Sybron’s cricketing days is teamwork. He sees his group’s role as being “the pioneers in terms of providing solutions to these agricultural problems”.

Through their collaboration with FAO, he and his colleagues hope to navigate numerous challenges to meet the national target of over 1,440 acres of high-quality hot peppers.

To get to that objective, the FAO project on Improving Phytosanitary, Food Safety and Market Access Opportunities, alongside the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, aims to develop and implement a clean seed certification programme for pepper production.

Sybron believes that would be a game-changer, ensuring consistent seed quality and genetic purity that provides farmers with reliable, high-yielding seeds. It would also enhance agricultural productivity and boost farm profitability and export potential.

The project, which is also supported by Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute and funded by the Standards and Trade Development Facility, will supply a gravity separator, seed extractor, and hot water bath treatment, to replace the manual cleaning currently done by eight people.

The faster, more efficient machinery will ensure greater genetic purity and increased throughput. It will also enhance international compliance, benefiting everyone in the value chain including seed producers, farmers, agro-processors, and exporters.