Potato industry in Ireland entering new era of blight management

The Irish potato industry looks set to enter a new era of blight management as it approaches the 2024 growing season, as Richard Halleron reports for Agriland. It is a future based on the set of two active fungicide molecules in combination – and each at full rate – each time a crop is sprayed for blight.

Driving all of this, is the confirmation that blight populations are fast developing resistance to the fungicide chemistries currently available at an ever increasing rate.

More specifically, last autumn was marked by the confirmation that the EU43 variant of the blight fungus (phytophthora infestans) had been identified in Irish potato crop samples. This is the genotype that had previously caused damage to potato crops in both Denmark and the Netherlands, as a direct result of its resistance to the carboxylic acid amide (CAA) group of fungicides.

The envisaged response at grower level will be the ramping up of all blight spray formulations, both in terms of their scope and complexity. By taking this approach, Teagasc potato specialists believe that the threat of EU43 can be controlled.

Source: Agriland. Read the full story here