With individual businesses affected by the orders to defoliate their ware crops after tests had shown high levels of leaf roll virus facing losses of hundreds of thousands of pounds, the issue was one of the main talking points at the recent Potatoes in Practice event.
Affected growers – many of whom face not only the loss of their crops but also the heavy additional costs of fulfilling their contracted tonnages from a febrile market fuelled by the lack of free to trade potatoes – have been left feeling that they are paying the price of protecting the reputation of Scotland’s seed sector.
Growers have also been questioning the lack of any compensation scheme akin to that available when similarly drastic control measures are actioned in the livestock sector.
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With some suggesting they have found themselves on the wrong side of what could be a much larger issue, a leading agronomist has questioned the approach taken by the authorities in ordering the crops to be destroyed early.
Scottish Agronomy’s Eric Anderson warned of the possibility of unintended consequences in ordering crops to be defoliated at such an early stage.
Mr Anderson said: “With nearly all of the affected crops still being under 45mm – and much of it below 35mm – it’s almost impossible that anyone
will be able to clear all the tubers from the field, a situation which will result in a huge number of ground keepers which are likely to act as a source of leaf roll infection for next year’s crop, as well as risking exacerbating any underlying PCN problem.”
But he agreed with other commentators that collaboration was the only way to tackle the larger threat posed by changes to how the leaf roll virus presented itself, with a more asymptomatic presentation making it difficult to pick up under the current inspection regime.
“We need the seed and the ware sectors, SASA and the Scottish Government all to come together to hammer out a real solution to this complex issue,” said Mr Anderson.
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