Psyllid
Investing in the fight
The psyllid is estimated to have cost the potato industry around $60 million since it was first found and that figure is expected to grow.
Controlling the pest and the search for new control measures is costing the industry a great deal. Potatoes New Zealand estimates that growers face an extra $700 per hectare to manage psyllid. If you extrapolate that across New Zealand's 10,000 hectares in potatoes, that represents $7m in extra costs for growers.
Potatoes New Zealand has already invested more than $500,000 in psyllid-related research and other activities. But that's just the beginning. It's estimated that $5 million of research might be needed over the coming five years to fund further research into psyllid, and develop diagnostic and management tools for growers.
Our industry cannot meet that cost just from reserves alone, so to raise that money we have taken the unprecedented step of asking the industry to pay a voluntary levy of $1 per tonne of potatoes (or potato products) harvested or handled. These donations are accepted by the Potatoes New Zealand Charitable Trust and are therefore tax deductible. Thankfully, the response from growers, merchants, retailers, processers and exporters has been very positive and has allowed our psyllid work to continue.
View the most up to date list of contributions.
Psyllid research projects
With psyllid a top focus for us, we have several projects on the go aimed at understanding and controlling psyllid better. Projects that are already up and running, or that we are aiming to fund, are:
- The current Sustainable Psyllid Management project covering:
- insecticide field trials, spray programme development (including resistance management)
- national psyllid monitoring programme
- biological control agents
- spray application technology research
- Psyllid population biology (by a PhD student)
- Impacts of phytoplasma on potato production
- Screening of varieties for resistance
- Psyllid coordinator position
- Psyllid workshops and extension materials.
Other funding has come from Plant & Food Research and the Sustainable Farming Fund.
