A call for action: Phytophthora Webinar - Tackling Late Blight in Europe

The event brought together technical and policy experts, national grower organizations, EUROBLIGHT partners and other stakeholders to explore the latest developments related to Phytophthora infestans, including its dynamic evolving population, resistance and virulence challenges, and relevant regulatory changes.

During the July webinar, speakers provided updates on the spread of P. infestans and discussed possible control strategies. Highlights from the presentations included:

• David Cooke, EuroBlight – James Hutton Institute: "The webinar provided a great opportunity to share information on what makes the potato late blight pathogen such a tough organism to manage. The coordinated EuroBlight monitoring of Phytophthora infestans populations has demonstrated the benefits of tracking pathogen evolution to update best practices for blight management. The meeting highlighted that there is more to do - increasing pressures on host resistance and fungicide availability will require a coordinated approach and this is now the focus of EuroBlight science and industry partners ahead of our next meeting."

• Jack Vossen, Wageningen Research: “This morning we learned that Late Blight R genes can be protected by fungicides, and fungicides can be protected by Late Blight R genes. An outlook for R gene protection by other R genes in the same variety (R gene stacks) is given. But the speed at which varieties with R gene stacks are bred is currently outpaced by the adaptation of Phytophthora. The use of single R gene varieties has already provided Phytophthora with the steppingstones to overcome R gene stacks. A European, sector wide collaboration is needed to design and implement regulations to retain host resistance as a Late Blight control measure for the future.”

• Lars Bødker, SEGES Denmark: ”From the Danish point of view, the webinar clearly showed the big challenge of potato late blight across borders in Europe. Denmark is in the forefront in the battle against phytophthora due to the low number of active ingredients. It is important to include the whole value chain to develop new tools and convey an efficient and consistent control strategy to growers and advisors.

• Albert Schirring, Bayer: “The different perspectives of research, breeders and R&D based crop protection companies, concluded and agreed on the alarming rapid evolution of the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans in Europe to break novel potato resistance genes and to develop resistance to fungicides with a specific mode of action.  The rapid removal and/or restrictions on the remaining effective fungicides will reduce farmers' ability to effectively control late blight. EU policy change is required to support the fast introduction of innovation while at the same time a transition path must be defined to maintain effective synthetic crop protection products in the market to support growers to control late blight, to protect novel R- genes and to sustain a competitive EU AgroFood Cluster potato. More than ever, urgent joint action of all stakeholders in the potato value chain and all policymakers is required to guarantee farmer incomes and consumer access to affordable EU based potato products.”

• Geert Pinxterhuis, BO Akkerbouw, the Netherlands: “The webinar emphasized again that the potato blight is developing rapidly in a very worrying way. The toolbox of farmers is vulnerable to dealing with this disease. The first message is directed at the (conventional and organic) farmers and the sector itself: use the tools wisely and bring resistance management to a high level. The second message is directed at policy makers: be aware of this wicked problem and facilitate the maintenance of an effective package of crop protection products and the ability to use new breeding techniques.”

For more details, please see the presentations at the Europatat site: Insights from the Phytophthora Webinar: Tackling Late Blight in Europe | Europatat.

The webinar was moderated by Romans Vorss, Europatat and co-organised together with Albert Schirring, Bayer.