Dutch organic sector unites against potato disease

On Tuesday morning, 25 Dutch organic potato breeders, growers, and big supermarket chains signed a unique agreement entitled “Expedited transition to more robust potato varieties”. With this agreement, the organic sector wants to find a sustainable solution for the devastating potato disease: Phytophthora. Bionext, the organic sector chain organisers took the initiative for this. The direct reason for the agreement is the large-scale damage this disease caused in 2016 to organically grown potatoes. Potatoes are prone to getting phytophthora and natural pesticides were found to be lacking. To speed up the process, the agreement partners have decided to give robust varieties preference in the breeding, growing and selling stages. In this way it will be possible to have 100% organic disease-resistant potatoes by 2020. More