News on Potato Defects and Diseases from the Americas

BCfresh, a British Columbia-based provider of locally-grown vegetables, announced the introduction of Farmer’s Keepers™ Potatoes. Farmer’s Keepers™ Potatoes come in a variety of non-uniform shapes and sizes with minor blemishes or minor mechanical damage.

Sources say the 2016 Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative contract will include new langcode mandating a minimum of two years of alternate crops between potatoes.

The rainfall in November, December, and January in the western and central parts of Cuba made it impossible for Cuban farmers to achieve a crop yield similar to the one they got last year, when they harvested 120,000 tons of potatoes.

El Ministerio de Agricultura anunció que la importación de papa para industria procedente de los Estados Unidos se podría reabrir proximamente debido a la aplicación de protocolos fitosanitarios para minimizar el riesgo de introducción de la plaga “Zebra chip”.

Idaho State University researchers have found high-tech cameras mounted on drones flying 60 meters above potato fields can effectively detect individual diseased and stressed plants.

Costa Rica's Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado (SFE) has informed USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that it will begin issuing import permits for US chipping potatoes beginning February 1, 2016.

Neil Gudmestad, a potato pathologist with North Dakota State University, has been awarded the 2015 Potato Man for All Seasons award by produce magazine The Packer.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed its food and feed safety assessment of the J.R. Simplot Company’s second generation of Innate® potatoes. Simplot will still need to complete its registration with the Environmental Protection Agency for these potatoes before introducing them for sale in the U.S. marketplace.

The Prince Edward Island Potato Board is pleased to announce a new plan for potato disinfection on Prince Edward Island.

Última publicación del ICA de Colombia en respuesta a la declaración del estado de emergencia fitosanitaria tras detectar el incremento del virus del amarillamiento de las venas de la papa y su vector,

El Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA), del Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego, realizó el lanzamiento de un método eficaz para combatir el “Gorgojo de los Andes” que ataca a los cultivos de papa.

The Prince Edward Island Potato Board is very disappointed by the decision of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to completely discontinue disinfection services effective December 31st, 2015.

The Prince Edward Island government is cutting funding to provincially-funded disinfection service, aimed at controlling potato ring rot.

La plaga afecta principalmente al Altiplano, lo que provoca la merma del 35% de producción por hectárea del tubérculo, según estudio hecho por el INIA.

The Plant Management Network provides information on how to improve efficacy of metam sodium application by shank injection in a new educational webcast developed by Neil C. Gudmestad

Tecnoplant, la división de agrobiotecnología del Grupo Sidus, ha desarrollado cultivares de papa resistentes al ataque de virus que, en la Argentina, pueden provocar mermas de hasta un 70 por ciento en la producción.

El cultivo de papa presenta varias afectaciones que producen perdidas y malestar en los productores; el gusano jiguá, la chiza y algunas clases de polilla. Las heladas en época de invierno también afectan gravemente los cultivos

The J.R. Simplot Company is pleased that the USDA has deregulated the Russet Burbank variety of the second generation of Innate™ potatoes. Simplot is looking forward to the completion of the EPA registration and FDA consultation before the second generation of Innate™ potatoes can be introduced into the marketplace.