Tackling the Disease/Pest Duo Requires an Integrated Strategy
In addition to the chemical approach that farmers use to combat the pest/disease duo, increasing potato production while safeguarding producers, consumers, and the environment requires an integrated strategy comprising a variety of tactics.
“Pests and diseases in potato crops can reduce tuber quality causing up to 100% yield losses,” the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) experts agree.
Even industry behemoths like Corteva concur that a variety of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) measures, including routine scouting, sanitation, and chemical and cultural controls, are necessary to combat common potato diseases and pests.
Other companies like Syngenta and FMC admit that after more than a half-century of intensively using synthetic products to support potato production growth to ensure the planet’s population increase, they must look to the future and introduce a new agricultural production system that is cleaner and safer than in previous decades.
They also acknowledge their worries about the potato farmers during these transitional periods.
“Syngenta is always supporting sustainable agriculture including economic sustainability and looking for solutions to help growers go in this direction. This process is slow and very time and resources demanding especially to bring new technologies to the market. […] What we are afraid of is growers running out of proper solutions to control specific pests/diseases which could put them into a noncompetitive situation that is not economically sustainable for them,” Marius Drăgoi, CP Marketing Manager Veg & Spec Romania & Moldova, Syngenta explained.
An Emphasis on Maintaining a Balance Between Pests and Their Natural Enemies
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) arose from a history of agricultural environment damage caused by improper agriculture practices. The green revolution, which promised to increase agricultural output to meet the world’s expanding food needs, actually created new issues. It focused solely on increased productivity, ignoring the environment’s ability to support continuous use and giving no attention to raising farmers’ wages.
In the beginning, pesticides and chemical fertilizers did produce noticeably larger harvests, but they were applied carelessly since no one knew exactly how to do it. Eventually, farmers developed a dependence on chemical pesticides and fertilizers and were unable to cultivate their fields without them.
You can read the rest of this article in your complimentary copy of Issue 2 of Potato Business Digital 2023 magazine, which you can access by clicking here.