Rise in blackleg 'major concern' for Scottish seed potato growers

Word from the seed potato fields indicates increased levels of the bacterial disease blackleg in crops over the past month.

Yesterday the talk was transformed into figures, with officials from the Scottish Government's Science &Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) revealing 8 per cent of all seed crops had been downgraded during field inspections.

The figures are still provisional but they show the highest levels of blackleg infection in seed crops for almost half a century. In addition to the one in 12 crops dropping a grade, 1.5 per cent of all crops entered dropped out of certification status altogether, thus further reducing the certified acreage of seed in Scotland.

Speaking at Potatoes in Practice, Scotland's main potato field trials event, which was held at a rain-soaked farm outside Dundee, Dr Gerry Saddler from SASA described the increased incidence of the disease as a "major concern".

He attributed the increased levels of blackleg to a number of factors, the main one being the four consecutive wet summers in the seed potato growing areas of Scotland.