News on Potato Defects and Diseases from Australia

Nine Global Potato Industry Award Winners were honoured at the 12th World Potato Congress in Adelaide, Australia.

If you’ve been into a fish and chip shop in Australia in the last 12 months, you may well have seen a notice tacked to the wall about the impact of the potato shortage. Supermarkets, too, slapped temporary limits on frozen chip purchases.

The World Potato Congress is extremely pleased to present its next webinar on Tuesday, April 6, 2021/Wednesday, April 7, 2021, with Dr. Paul Horne, Entomologist, and owner and Director of IPM Technologies Pty Ltd., Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia.

On 10 May, a meeting was held between AuSPICA, members of the Tasmanian Certified Seed Potato Scheme (known as TasSeed) and invited industry representatives.

Australian potato growers keen to learn about the latest research for managing key pests and diseases on potato farms have an opportunity to listen to leading experts at a Potato Industry Research and Development (R&D) Forum in Melbourne this week.

Potato cyst nematodes (PCN) are quarantine soilborne pests that damage potatoes around the world, stunting plants and reducing yields.

The government of Western Australia has announced that it has succeeded in regaining market access for Western Australian potatoes in all of Australia, following the detection of tomato potato psyllid in February 2017.

The Australian Industry Association AUSVEG has published a Potato Growers’ Biosecurity Manual, a guide to farm biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of weeds, pests, and diseases impacting production.

In Western Australia, a surveillance program to assess if the last year detected tomato potato psyllid (TPP) carries the zebrachip disease pathogen (CLso), did not identify a single case of the pest - with over 10.000 psyllids tested.

Potato farmers could see Eastern States markets reopen in the near future which are still closed to WA following the tomato potato psyllid outbreak last year.

Sabine Tanios es candidata a doctorado en Tasmania y trabaja en una investigación que trata de averiguar por qué y cómo las papas desarrollan esa coloración verdosa.

In Tasmania, Australia, surveillance programs for the tomato potato psyllid (TPP) are being ramped up as growers try to delay any incursion of the pest for as long as possible.

Raylea Rowbottom, a researcher of the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture says it's inevitable that the potato psyllid, a destructive insect that has threatened tomato and potato crops in Western Australia will make it to the east coast.

Seed potato growers on Kangaroo Island - an island off the mainland of South Australia - are successfully adopting a new strategy to manage the aphids and thrips pestering their crops, taking on expert advice from agronomists and entomologists to adopt integrated pest management for these insect pests.

Alan Parker looked out onto the farm business he had spent his entire life establishing. The West Australian seed potato grower will know in the next six weeks whether his lifelong career will continue.

Potato Psyllids, a destructive plant pest found for the first time in Australia in February cannot be eradicated, so the industry will seek to manage it, rather than destroy it, according to The Department of Food and Agriculture of West Australia.

Potato producers in south-west Western Australia say the detection of the potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli) is a "serious blow" to their industry. The detection of the psyllid may put national and international exports in jeopardy.

With pesticide resistance rising in species of aphids which feed on potatoes and spread viruses, one of the best control options for growers battling these pests may be found in nature, free of charge: parasitic wasps.