The rapid evolution of late blight strains and growing resistance to key chemistries are creating fresh challenges for UK potato growers. At BASF’s recent Perfecting Potatoes Together webinar, held in partnership with the James Hutton Institute and GB Potatoes, experts underscored the need for innovation and collaboration to protect crops and ensure sustainable production.

Dr David Cooke, senior plant pathologist at the James Hutton Institute, warned of the dynamic nature of the late blight pathogen and the implications for growers. “There are different clones of the potato blight pathogen and over time these change, so the blight that you are fighting in the field changes,” he explained. “This makes knowledge on the evolving populations very important.”

Cooke highlighted the Fight Against Blight initiative, which monitors fields across the UK. “Scouts sign up to collect samples, which we then DNA fingerprint to identify the pathogen causing blight in that field. We use the Fight Against Blight website to alert growers as to when and which blight is active in the area,” he said.

He stressed the importance of resistance management to avoid fungicide failures. “If blight of any strain gets out of control, it has the potential to mutate and either overrun host resistance or become resistant to a fungicide,” Cooke noted. “Every one of those spores that has been exposed to a fungicide potentially has a mutation that is going to cause problems to you downstream.”

To counter these risks, growers were urged to avoid repetitive or solo use of products, to mix actives with alternative modes of action, and to follow manufacturers’ recommended doses closely.

BASF Innovation

For BASF, innovation in fungicide development is central to tackling the threat of late blight. Paul Goddard, BASF’s business development manager for potatoes, pointed to the company’s strong pipeline of potato-focused solutions.

“Privest has already proved itself to be an invaluable tool in the fight against late blight,” Goddard said. “It is the only true systemic product with activity against all late blight genotypes and has no resistance issues.”

According to BASF, Privest’s unique chemistry allows growers to simplify their blight management programmes. “Both actives in Privest have multiple modes of action, protecting each other and enhancing overall effectiveness as well as lowering the resistance risk,” Goddard added. “Applying it early, at rapid canopy development, gives the best protection of new growth and with up to three applications to a crop, ideally at 7-day intervals, it is an ideal partner going through to stable canopy.”

Driving Industry Collaboration

The webinar also featured Alex Godfrey, chair of GB Potatoes, who emphasised the importance of a united industry response to key challenges. “With membership open to all in the potato industry, we aim to facilitate collaboration which will help us to tackle the challenges facing the potato industry,” he said.

Launched in October 2022, GB Potatoes has been involved in a range of projects, from potato blight and aphid monitoring to managing CIPC residues and updating fertiliser guidance for the crop. “In partnership with CUPGRA we established the GB PCN forum which brings together experts to discuss how we manage PCN across the industry, creating a strategy,” Godfrey noted.

As late blight continues to evolve, industry stakeholders stress that innovation in agronomy, chemistry, and genetics, coupled with better communication and data sharing, will be critical to protecting the future of UK potato production.