Agri-chemical company BASF has launched a new initiative to help UK growers unlock the potential – and the profits – of their potato crop. Titled, ‘Perfecting Potatoes Together’, the initiative provides a platform on which the potato industry can come together to share experience, know-how and passion for developing and perfecting healthy potato crops.

“It’s undoubtedly been a tough year with the loss of more active ingredients, the pandemic and more extreme weather events,” said BASF marketing manager for specialties, Matthew Goodson. “The combined effect is a very challenging environment in which to produce a profitable potato crop. We want to work together with growers and other industry experts, to help develop solutions that overcome these challenges. But to make this happen we need the support of growers and we’re asking them to join the community.”

It is discussions, exchange of experiences and ideas which BASF hopes will underpin the new initiative, strengthening understanding between the company and growers, and improving the breadth and depth of knowledge transfer.

For farmers in BASF’s ‘Real Results Circle’, there’s an opportunity to tap into the company’s R&D, and get insights into optimizing crop and product performance. Participating growers will also be among the first to trial new products and help shape the future of BASF’s product and service offering.

“We’ve a really exciting pipeline for the potato sector with three new fungicides targeting late blight, alteraria and tuber disease, two new herbicides effective against grassweeds and tricky broadleaved weeds respectively, and two new insecticides – an aphicide and a biological wireworm control – all coming to market in the next five years,” explained Goodson. “While our products go through rigorous testing during the development and approvals processes, it’s not until you get them on-farm using real sprayers that you uncover the nuances of optimizing efficacy.”