At the international potato fair PotatoEurope in Belgium, the covenant ‘robust organic potatoes 2023 – 2026’ was signed by the Belgian Federal Minister of Agriculture David Clarinval.
He did this together with several chain partners from the sector. The new agreement is a follow-up to a previous chain agreement that ran from 2019 to 2022 and with which the chain partners want to increase the use of robust varieties in organic potato cultivation. But robust varieties can also offer opportunities for conventional cultivation, he writes WANT.
Robust potatoes are varieties that are resistant, or at least very tolerant, to late blight (phytophthora), may also be drought and heat tolerant and may also have a lower or more efficient nitrogen requirement.
“In this way, potatoes can be grown organically without the use of fungicides and investments are made in a sustainable and environmentally friendly cultivation method,” says Paul Verbeke of BioForum Vlaanderen, sector association for the organic agricultural and food chain.
Common cultivation
Robust varieties are not only used in organic cultivation. “The advance of sustainable varieties may be even greater in conventional cultivation,” says Jan-Eric Geersing, director of Geersing Potato Specialist from Emmeloord, developer of potato varieties and seller of seed potatoes.
Geersing: ‘By using phytophthora-resistant varieties, costs for potato growers decrease because they have to apply less control.’
The new potato agreement, which runs until the end of 2026, not only applies to the organic potato sector in the Netherlands and Belgium, but with the involvement of French partners, it is also in force for the first time in our southern neighbors. “Trade is international, so the more countries participate, the more clout we have,” Verbeke concludes.
2023-09-09 12:53:00
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