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Potato late blight management in organic agriculture.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Ghorbani, Reza Wilcockson, Steve Giotis, Charilaos Leifert, Carlo |
| Copyright Year | 2004 |
| Abstract | © 2004. Research Information Ltd. All rights reserved Introduction Late blight caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans is one of the most serious diseases of potato worldwide and can completely destroy a crop, resulting in 100% yield loss. In the 1840s, it caused the Irish Potato Famine that killed a quarter of a million people through starvation and caused another million or so to immigrate to the United States (Arneson, 1998). Currently, it causes substantial economic losses in both conventional and organic potato production systems throughout the EU (Elad, Kohl, and Shtienberg, 2002). A range of chemical fungicides with different modes of action offer the most effective control of late blight. However, when environmental conditions favour spread of the disease, frequent applications will be needed and they may not be completely effective. In organic agriculture, copper compounds are currently the only fungicides permitted for blight control, but not in all countries. These were due to be prohibited from March 2002 under EU legislation, but this has been delayed. Until the end of 2005, use of copper is restricted to a maximum of 8 kg of elemental copper/ha/year, then 6 kg per year thereafter, with the aim of completely phasing it out when effective alternative control methods are developed. The proposed ban on the use of copper fungicides in organic farming in the EU will substantially increase the risk of blight in organic production and consequently increase economic losses of farmers, unless suitable alternative blight management strategies are developed. Since EU policies are aimed at supporting an expansion of organic production these are required urgently. Such approaches are being investigated in an EU-funded research programme known by the acronym Blight-MOP: Blight-development of a systems approach for the Management of late blight in EU Organic Potato production to maintain yield and quality and hence commercial viability in the absence of copper fungicides. It involves seven countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and UK) and thirteen research centres and runs from 2001 to 2005. The system approach involves integrated use of (i) resistant varieties and diversification strategies (ii) existing agronomic strategies (iii) alternative treatments that can replace synthetic and copper based fungicides and (iv) use of existing blight forecasting systems to optimise control treatments. |
| Starting Page | 176 |
| Ending Page | 180 |
| Page Count | 5 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1564/15aug12 |
| Volume Number | 15 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://profdoc.um.ac.ir/articles/a/1005493.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1564/15aug12 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
