The development follows the visit of Huub Schepers, one of EuroBlight's coordinators, to the ALAP (Latin American Potato Association) conference in Bogota, Colombia, earlier this year. Huub, from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a former member of ENDURE's potato case study team, noted the importance of blight in Latin American potato production.
“During the conference I realised how big the impact of phytophthora on the potato production in Latin America is,” he told the EuroBlight website. “The importance of phytophthora clearly showed by the number of presentations related to this pathogen. In total 124 oral papers were presented: 24 dealt with phytophthora. Most Latin American countries presented the situation regarding phytophthora in their country. In some years, losses up to 100% were recorded! It would be great if scientists and industry can use the EuroBlight approach to tackle the problems with phytophthora.”
EuroBlight can trace its history back almost 20 years and has a membership of around 150 researchers and other specialists concerned with early and late blight in potato. Important topics in the network include integrated control, decision support systems, potato varieties and the genetic variation of phytophthora. The information generated in the network is important for both scientists and for practical recommendations regarding potato varieties and fungicides.
During a session dedicated to phytophthora at the meeting, Huub discussed the launch of a Latin America late blight network with representatives of 10 countries and four coordinators for the fledgling network were appointed. EuroBlight is offering its experience and contacts to help the network get started and representatives of the Latin American network will be invited to participate in the next EuroBlight meeting, which will be held in Romania in May 2015.
Huub believes this kind of network could be established in other continents too. “We believe that it is possible to start similar networks in Latin America, North America, Asia and Africa,” he said. “We hope that other regions will follow.”
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