Potato Review

www.potatoreview.com POTATO REVIEW MARCH/APRIL 2021 45 STORAGE AND SUSTAINABILITY technologists, to support the growth of the UK agri-tech innovation ecosystem. Co- ordinating the meeting was Dr Laura Bouvet, Knowledge and Innovation Facilitator at Agri- TechE, and recently involved in potato storage knowledge exchange with AHDB. Laura said: “While few diseases actually originate in stores, prevention is better than cure and the way you would prevent disease or reduce disease is by thorough cleaning once the store is empty, particularly if rots have existed previously and inoculum may be present – so it is about giving a deep clean, removing as much debris and residue as possible – in order to allow no breeding ground for spores to germinate. “And then most diseases come from the eld or the seed, so it needs to be a joined-up process of prevention in the eld coupled with prevention in storage. “Integrated Store Management (ISM) is a multidisciplinary approach to storage – thinking about the storage environment and its management, the use of physical, biological and chemical measures for controlling disease pressure and sprouting, considering varietal traits – so integrating all of these di erent components as a whole, is crucial for storage moving forward.” “CIPC had been the main sprout suppressant for stores, so now that it’s gone there’s a learning curve in the industry on how to make the best use out of the alternatives sprout suppressants: Ethylene, Mint Oil and Maleic Hydrazide. “ is ties back in with Integrated Store Management, because these alternative compounds require the right storage “Storage of unprocessed fresh produce is a particular challenge because it is living.” Debbie Rees, Principal Scientist, NRI monitoring gaseous emissions of potatoes in store, funded by the UK government’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership.” Alison Wright, Project Manager at B-hive Innovations, which provides technological solutions for the fresh produce industry and works alongside growers, said she and her team were investigating whether technologies will have the sensitivity to identify presence of defect within a region of the store. e ultimate aim of the project would be to be able to detect speci c defects. “Even if we’re able to identify general changes and indicators of defects and/or diseases, that would still provide a huge advantage to store managers as it would reduce cross- contamination of produce,” she said. Laura added: “With storage, it’s not just about what happens in store. It starts in the eld. You can only have the best product possible if you’ve got the best crop possible, so there needs to be that collaboration with the grower. From an integrated store management perspective, more work is needed to help growers integrate that data more seamlessly.” “Even if we’re able to identify general changes and indicators of defects and/or diseases, that would still provide a huge advantage to store managers.” Alison Wright, Project Manager, B-hive Innovations and growing conditions in order to work e ectively. For example, Ethylene and mint oil don’t have the residual e ect of CIPC, so it’s necessary to make sure they remain instore and do their job by keeping stores sealed for longer – which then requires a more careful approach to store management including and a well-insulated building and timing e ectively when to apply the product. “For another example, Maleic hydrazide must be applied in the eld to suppressing sprouting e ects later on in the store. Research from Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research has shown that Maleic Hydrazide in combination with either ethylene or mint oil is very e ective, and we’ve been encouraging growers to use Maleic hydrazide as a baseline treatment pre-storage to enhance overall sprout suppression e cacy and improve storage lifespan. “We are seeing a number of Agri-TechE members developing innovations that can help growers with this. For example, LiveTrace has developed a Vegetable Storage Foggers App, which makes information about the alternative suppressants available to storage managers and Crop4Sight, which has an app that enables growers to identify when to apply Maleic Hydrazide to the crop and for produce in storage the exact point at which the potato will come out of dormancy and begin to sprout. “Sni ng your store is still one of the best ways to monitor diseases, particularly for soft rot. And for blemish diseases, using the eyes. ere’s no speci c sensor for monitoring diseases in store yet – although the research and development company B-Hive, are working on a non-destructive method for Crop4Sight’s dynamic seed calculator takes account of the target yield scaled. Crop4Sight enables farmers to benchmark crop development. Debbie Rees, Principal Scientist, NRI. Dr Laura Bouvet, Knowledge and Innovation Facilitator, Agri-TechE. Alison Wright, Project Manager, B-hive Innovations.