Ziektes en gebreken uit Afrika

The World Potato Congress is pleased to be beginning its Fall webinar series on November 12, 2020, with Professor Jacquie van der Waals from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Demand for potatoes in eastern Africa has been growing steadily. This growth is driven in part by rising demand from the fast food industry and for processing into high value products such as crisps, chips and starch. Despite an increase of 60% in the area of cultivated land, production has been declining in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

In an effort to combat diseases which have been hampering potato yields for the past two years in Dedza, International Potato Centre (CIP) recently handed over disease resistant Irish potato seeds to ten farmers in the district.

Kenyan farmers are facing a shortage of certified seed potatoes following the rejection of 78 percent of the planting materials that had been imported last year.

Victoria - a popular local potato variety in Uganda - is extremely susceptible to potato Late Blight disease, but a resistant GM version of this variety has been developed.
With testing almost complete, it is up to the government biosafety regulatory authorities in Uganda.

Based on extensive trials (two years, three separate farms, ten potato varieties) in a joint effort of AHDB, James Hutton Ltd, SASA and Seeds2B Africa (part of the Syngenta Foundation) three GB potato varieties have been recommended for release in Kenya.

Russia has agreed to ease a ban on potato exports from eight farming areas in Egypt, allowing shipments to resume from June 6.

Russia’s agricultural quarantine authorities flagged two potato shipments imported from Egypt that were found to be contaminated with potato brown rot.

Tanzania has excelled in experimental trials of high yielding and disease resistant potato varieties under a climate smart agriculture programme aimed to improve food security.

Experts in potato breeding and research have identified Eastern Province of Rwanda as a potential alternative for clean potato seed production.

Zambia and South Africa may be perfectly at peace, but farmers on either side of the Limpopo River - the border between the two countries - seem engaged in a trade war. And it is mostly about potatoes...

A survey done in 20 counties in Kenya released earlier this month, shows that Potato Cyst Nematode infestation has reached 80 to 100 per cent in some of the potato growing areas.

Situated in the Northeast of Tanzania, the district of Lushoto is part of the so called highlands of Tanzania where potatoes are traditionally grown. Due to heat and lack of resilient potato varieties, farmers would often lose all the crop.

Potato tubers are affected by a number of blemishes, which can cause severe economic losses. This 'Focus on Potato' presentation by Jacquie van der Waals, Professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa can serve as a guide for growers and others in the potato industry to help with identification of these blemishes.

In Uganda, a series of field trials began in 2015 to assess whether twelve highly resistant GM plants of the ‘Desiree’ and local ‘Victoria’ variety provided by the International Potato Center CIP offer a durable resistance to late blight

Nakuru will test and release (late blight resistant) varieties of potato seeds for small-scale farmers, Agriculture executive Dr Stanley Chepkwony has said.

Plans by Kenya to import Irish potatoes from the Netherlands have got agricultural experts worried, with some warning that it could bring a more virulent form of late blight to the region.

Scientists in Uganda will soon start confined trials of genetically modified strains of Irish potato designed to be resistant to Phytophthora infestans, the fungus that causes potato blight, now devastating the crop in the west of the country.