News on Potato Defects and Diseases from Africa

Solynta's potato varieties with high resistances against Late Blight provide Kenyan farmers with good yields, as demonstrated in a comparative field test during an extensive spray/no spray trial in Limuru, Kenya.

Elder Isaiah Buwah is growing potatoes for forty years in the Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. Having seen the impact from late blight first hand, he truly enjoyed the harvest of the first batch of - resistant - biotech potatoes.

The Zimbabwe Potato Micro-propagation Association (ZPMA) has spearheaded the resuscitation of seed potato production since this stalled around 2008. The current mandate is to substitute imported seed potato.

Potato farmers have welcomed the government’s on-going trials on the use of agricultural biotechnology in producing a new Irish potato variety resistant to the devastating late blight disease.

Corteva Agriscience launched Zorvec Encantia, a new fungicide that specifically targets late blight, a detrimental pathogen currently compromising potato growth in South Africa. The solution, based on Zorvec active, is the first member of a novel class of fungicides.

Free smartphone app Nuru helps African potato farmers to detect late blight (Phytophthora) and early blight (Alternaria) since 2021

With potato production in East Africa under increasing threat from the invasive and highly destructive potato cyst nematode (PCN) pest, an organic technology developed from banana plant waste material may well be the ultimate rescue.

Mustapha Baba Shehuri, minister of state for agriculture and rural development, says Nigeria will be among the world’s top three potato producing countries by 2025.

Potato tuber moth can be a potato producer’s nightmare. Fortunately, InteliGro’s extremely effective monitoring system not only help to control this pest successfully but allows producers to manage risks and reduce input costs over time.

Patrick Makuzwa has approached the High Court seeking an order canceling his contract with Cairns Foods and for the food company to compensate him to the value of USD 46 789 50.

Among the 152 isolates collected from symptomatic potato plants and tubers in different provinces in Algeria, 13 species of Fusarium and Neocosmospora were identified.

Imagine being a potato farmer in Ethiopia, Kenya, or Nigeria. On a small piece of land, which you depend on for food and income, you have spent months planting, weeding, and watering.

The World Potato Congress is pleased to be beginning its Fall webinar series on November 12, 2020, with Professor Jacquie van der Waals from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Demand for potatoes in eastern Africa has been growing steadily. This growth is driven in part by rising demand from the fast food industry and for processing into high value products such as crisps, chips and starch. Despite an increase of 60% in the area of cultivated land, production has been declining in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

In an effort to combat diseases which have been hampering potato yields for the past two years in Dedza, International Potato Centre (CIP) recently handed over disease resistant Irish potato seeds to ten farmers in the district.

Kenyan farmers are facing a shortage of certified seed potatoes following the rejection of 78 percent of the planting materials that had been imported last year.

Victoria - a popular local potato variety in Uganda - is extremely susceptible to potato Late Blight disease, but a resistant GM version of this variety has been developed.
With testing almost complete, it is up to the government biosafety regulatory authorities in Uganda.

Based on extensive trials (two years, three separate farms, ten potato varieties) in a joint effort of AHDB, James Hutton Ltd, SASA and Seeds2B Africa (part of the Syngenta Foundation) three GB potato varieties have been recommended for release in Kenya.