UK POTATO production could fall by 40 per cent unless there is a dramatic change of heart by the European Parliament, which is planning to ban many agricultural pesticides, experts have warned.
This level of fall would bring about a steep rise in the cost to the consumer of what is considered an affordable food in these straitened days.
Rob Clayton, agronomist with the Potato Council, described the situation as potentially very
serious for the UK potato industry. The proposal being considered in Brussels could see the removal of the main ingredient in fungicides used in the all-important battle against blight.
It could also see many of the current range of herbicides used in potato growing removed from the shelves.
And although not so important in Scotland as in the main English potato-growing regions, all the chemicals used to remove eelworms from the soil would go into the "do not use" category.
If that was not a lengthy enough list, Euro politicians want to remove the main herbicide used against the pernicious grass weed, couch. The loss of this last pesticide would, predicts Clayton, take us back to the era "when we could only hand-rake the couch and then try to burn it off".
The legislation is working its way through under the guidance of the French presidency. Although some member states, including the UK, have expressed opposition, they are heavily outweighed by the environmental lobby.
Clayton, who was speaking at a day for potato specialists in Dundee, said that the Potato Council would be sending information to all the potato growers in the country giving advice on how to lobby for the status quo.
He was supported in his call for politicians to think again by the recently appointed chairman of the Potato Council, East Lothian farmer Allan Stevenson, who said that the EU Directorate should have carried out an impact assessment on the consequences of the proposals before proceeding even to this stage.
He had no direct criticism of politicians but said they had the responsibility of not pushing through legislation without first of all weighing up the outcomes and the risks of their actions.
He believed if this had been done, there would not be the emotive clamour for the removal of essential tools that helped make the UK potato industry one of the top performers on the world stage.
"Currently, potatoes are seen as an affordable crop. They are a crop that is strongly associated with this country and they are available over a long season. Any change to that equation would be felt far beyond the farming industry," he stated.
One possible solution would be the advancement of genetically modified potato varieties that did not need any chemical controls.
Until now some industry leaders and most politicians have shied away from this emotive route.
But Helen Priestley, chief executive of the Potato Council, openly stated that GM technology was definitely one possibility for the future.
And later today, in his opening speech at a major conference on potatoes, SNP MP Pete Wishart is expected to float the idea for some experimental work to the carried out in GM technology.
If this happens, it might give a hint of a change of policy within the Scottish Government.
The full article contains 551 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
