News on Potato Cultivation from Europe

The weather has not been kind to potato growers in the United Kingdom. AHDB potatoes offers some helpful tips and guidance to make it a successful potato growing season nevertheless.

The EuroBlight project is examining the ongoing evolution of the potato late blight pathogen (Phytophthora infestans). In 2017, almost 1500 samples from 16 countries in Europe were genotyped. The results indicate that new clones continue to spread.

This year has seen the latest ever planting of early potatoes in Northern Ireland as farmers battle poor weather conditions, according to industry leaders.

Late Blight control strategies in the United Kingdom will have to change this season if potato growers are to combat the spread of a new aggressive, fungicide-insensitive/ resistant strain of the disease, leading agronomy firm Hutchinsons says.

By analysing potato production data, information systems specialist Professor Wolfgang Maaß and his team want to help farmers and food companies identify potential benefits and optimize their processes.

Dewulf, full-line supplier of potato and root crop equipment, has officially inaugurated its new logistics
centre (SLC) at its headquarters in Roeselare, Belgium

As a result of the uncertainty regarding the reapproval of the active ingredient Diquat the potato industry made an effort to identify alternative solutions for haulm desiccation. Haulm killing with high-voltage electrical current showed the greatest chances of success.

Although PCN testing of soil for seed potato cultivation is typically strictly regulated, different procedures are in use for the testing of soil for ware potatoes - and which one is used has huge consequences for the reliability.

Grimme Ireland recently moved to a newly constructed Sales and Service Center for its Agricultural Machinery on a one hectare plot in Balbriggan, 25 km North of Dublin.

Estonian Potato Growers who were unable to harvest part of their crops due to excessive rainfall last fall will receive financial support from their government.

The North-Western European Potato Growers report on volume and condition of the potatoes still in storage

Never before has Agrico marketed such high volumes of seed potatoes, and could pay out such high dividends to members for both seed and table potatoes. Consequently, the 2016/2017 financial year will be noted as one of the most successful years in Agrico's history.

Following an investigation by the Animal and Plant Health Agency earlier this year, it has been confirmed that ulluco tubers imported into the UK from a number of different sources were infected by harmful viruses, highlighting that there is uncertainty about the disease status of this crop in general.

GRIMME Group has joined forces with TOMRA, the global leader in food sorting solutions. The partnership will result in the industry-leading TOMRA FPS (Field Potato Sorter) being integrated into C to create the GRIMME PowerCombi solution.

Dewulf, supplier of a full line of potato and root crop machinery, announced a licencing agreement with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M Ltd), part of the USD 19 billion Mahindra Group, headquartered in Mumbai (India) for the manufacturing and marketing of potato planting equipment in India.

Using sensors to determine the best time for harvesting and steering automated tractors across fields, the market for agricultural technology is growing worldwide. It is also a lucrative field for Bosch. 'Bosch can do more than cars and cordless screwdrivers. We are bringing high tech to farms, opening up a market worth billions.'

Dewulf, full-liner in potato and root crop machinery, will reveal the Structural 30, its latest belt planter at the Agritechnica 2017.

Although the full harvest is not in the stores yet, the North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimates the actual harvest at 28.9 million tons for the 5 countries. This is more than the estimate of last September.