Up to a sixth of the UK's potato production could be lost as a result of an EU directive on pesticides, an expert said yesterday.
Rob Clayton, of the Potato Council, based his warning on the effects of removing several chemicals essential in keeping pests and diseases, such as blight, slugs and eelworm at bay.
Speaking at the main potato research event outside Dundee, he said the loss of a single major pesticide used in the control of eelworm could cost the industry more than £50 million a year in reduced production.
A similar scale of loss was estimated if slugs were not controlled. And withdrawing one chemical used to fight potato blight could reduce the UK crop by 10 per cent on its own.
"We are really under pressure with blight now,"she said. "We have a new strain coming in that attacks crops two weeks earlier than normal and we have a real battle with late blight attacking the crop just before it ripens.
"That means we have at least two additional sprays to add to a normal control programme."
Ironically, a surge in people growing their own potatoes has increased the spread of blight. "We are now all gardening mad. Demand for allotments is massive. But we believe these small plots of potatoes are now inoculants that help spread blight into commercial crops."
Rob Clayton, of the Potato Council, based his warning on the effects of removing several chemicals essential in keeping pests and diseases, such as blight, slugs and eelworm at bay.
Speaking at the main potato research event outside Dundee, he said the loss of a single major pesticide used in the control of eelworm could cost the industry more than £50 million a year in reduced production.
A similar scale of loss was estimated if slugs were not controlled. And withdrawing one chemical used to fight potato blight could reduce the UK crop by 10 per cent on its own.
"We are really under pressure with blight now,"she said. "We have a new strain coming in that attacks crops two weeks earlier than normal and we have a real battle with late blight attacking the crop just before it ripens.
"That means we have at least two additional sprays to add to a normal control programme."
Ironically, a surge in people growing their own potatoes has increased the spread of blight. "We are now all gardening mad. Demand for allotments is massive. But we believe these small plots of potatoes are now inoculants that help spread blight into commercial crops."
