News on Potato Defects and Diseases from United Kingdom

Fera scientists have made breakthrough progress with industry-steered wireworm research, highlighting where and when the pest is expected to pose the highest risk to arable and fresh produce crops over the next two decades. 

Meeting the challenges will be the focus of the 26th annual gathering in Dundee of the country’s leading potato producers and the companies that support them.

The potatoes sector is to benefit from the delivery of seven industry projects funded by residual levy reserves, after a grant agreement was signed between AHDB and GB Potatoes.

This year’s Hutchinsons Potato Demonstration Day, held at Worth Farms, Holbeach, Lincolnshire, focussed on potential solutions to address some of the key challenges faced by UK potato growers.

The ground-breaking trial, set to start in the spring, will equip the 'Slug Sleuths' with special rigs designed to improve the complex machine-learning algorithms used to identify the slimy pests.

The Fera-led R&D project, Enigma I, is reporting impressive results halfway through its investigation into sustainable wireworm control – a pest issue causing significant annual yield losses in root vegetable and salad crops.

Jersey Potato exporters were able to negotiate a better price from UK supermarkets this year to help cover rising costs but blight and poor weather meant it was still a difficult season.

B-hive Innovations, a cutting-edge, agri-tech research and development business is embarking on a new collaborative programme that aims to reduce the risk of potato bruising and develop technologies that could reduce supermarket waste.

The World Potato Congress presents a webinar with Dr. Alison Lees, Potato Pathologist with The James Hutton Institute, Dundee, UK on February 28, 2023 at 9.00am Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Potato industry challenges posed by PCN and blackleg were among the topics discussed at the recent Cambridge University Potato Growers’ Association (CUPGRA) annual conference.

Following an upward trend in wireworm damage in root vegetable and cereal crops throughout the UK, industry leaders have joined forces to co-fund a Fera-led R&D project to find an end-to-end solution

Potato industry leaders in Great Britain who are driving forward proposals for a new representative organization funded by voluntary subscriptions say they have a 'clear mandate' to make plans for the next stage.

An innovative method of controlling a range of damaging crop diseases using native, beneficial soil bacteria has emerged from a research-industry collaboration.

Seed breeders work closely with potato growers to develop desirable agronomic traits, and with the wider supply chain for those crucial characteristics such as dry matter distribution, sugar formation, and storability.

Waitrose and Partners is set to be the first major retailer to sign up to The UK Robust Potato Pledge, which will see the group move away from the use of copper-based fungicides on organic fresh potatoes in order to combat late blight Phytophthora.

After the Plant Health Centre led a working Group to identify a clear strategy for dealing with the Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN) crisis, a report was delivered to the Scottish Government.

Crop4Sight’s online and mobile digital toolkit is designed to help growers maximise saleable potato yields and was launched as a commercial service in 2020. Crop4Sight now adds a potato irrigation scheduling tool.

This season AHDB (United Kingdom) is receiving a lot of reports of high levels of softening, dehydration and compression damage from potato store managers.