Pepper

Pepper was selected as a fruit vegetable of significant interest to establish an EVA network. The EVA Pepper network builds on partners’ experience from recent or ongoing Horizon2020 projects LIVESEEDS, BRESOV and G2PSOL as well as the active ECPGR Solanaceae Working Group. In 2024, a Grant Scheme activity of the Solanaceae WG, 'EuroPepLand', was granted, providing opportunity to extend the EVA Pepper network to additional genebanks who will work together on establishing a European Pepper landraces core collection, which will be genotyped and made available for multilocation evaluation by the EVA Pepper partners. 

Activities in the pepper network include field evaluations for agronomic traits in various geographic locations across Europe as well as tests for important diseases in controlled conditions. Pepper accessions will also be genotyped to provide data accessible to association studies.

An ECPGR Grant Scheme Activity 'EuroPepLand' was funded during the first call in Phase XI and will implement a trans-European pepper landrace collection for resilient agriculture, involving 16 members of the Solanaceae Working Group and three self-funded partners under the coordination of Working Group Chair Pasquale Tripodi. This activity provides an opportunity to extend the membership of the EVA Pepper network and enlarge the pepper diversity available for multilocation field trials within the network. The project will kick off with a joint meeting of EVA Pepper and EuroPepLand on 30-31 October 2024 in Almeria, Spain.