Potato Review

20 POTATO REVIEW JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 PEST CONTROL More information about aphid control is available at www.ahdb.org.uk/knowledge- library/aphid-and-virus-potatoes A COLLABORATIVE approach to aphid and virus control has seen widespread industry engagement this year, despite the major stumbling presented by the outbreak of COVID-19. A range of stakeholders, including growers, agronomists, researchers, trade associations, government bodies, research organisations and independent agronomists, attended an initial National Virus Forum at Stoneleigh Park in January, to address a prevalence of virus in ware potato crops during the previous season. e meeting was jointly hosted by the AHDB and NFU. Chair of the NFU potato forum and North Lincolnshire grower, Alex Godfrey, said: “Members of the forum recognised that the virus challenges must be approached as a broad industry issue, and that collective responsibility is needed to minimise its Industry comes together to review virus advice and tuber testing methods impact. ere has been widespread industry engagement since the January meeting to better understand where issues exist, and improvements can be made.” A key discussion point in the January meeting was the role of post burn-down virus testing (tuber indexing). Work is still ongoing to fully understand how a consistent approach to the interpretation of this testing can be achieved, and how it can complement the visual inspection regime. Many growers and sellers of seed have since been voluntarily undertaking tuber indexing. FERA recently held a webinar on the subject and AHDB produced a podcast. In addition, the AHDB’s practical guidance has been overhauled. Strategy Director for Potatoes at AHDB, Rob Clayton, said aphid control work is taking place across the Strategic Potato Farm network, with seed and ware growers taking part. “In a normal summer, growers would have been able to come to the eld, see the work in action and discuss ndings with researchers, agronomists and other growers, but because of the coronavirus those discussions were forced online,” he said. While some of the timelines set in January have been disrupted by COVID-19, industry and stakeholders have been continuing to address what led to the initial impacts and working towards solutions to prevent a recurrence, he stressed. In the short term, both the BPTA and NFU have made proposals to APHA regarding the running of the Seed Potato Classi cation Scheme (SPCS) in England & Wales in 2021. e proposals put to APHA relate to both seed virus incidence and respond to changes to the scheme made by APHA in 2020 as a result of Covid-19 restrictions. Alex Godfrey said: “One of the conclusions of the forum, was that we would encourage all growers to continue developing their supply chain relationships, and in particular their knowledge of the source of their seed and its provenance.” Alex Godfrey says supply chain knowledge is of key importance. Rob Clayton said seed and ware growers are working together on aphid control methods.