Researchers at the University of Prince Edward Island are beginning their search for a potato variety more resistant to potato warts following a provincial economic loss of 300 million pounds of potatoes.
Last October, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) found the largest concentration of potato wart in decades in two potato fields. In November, the CFIA suspended all potato shipments to the U.S. to prevent the spread of potato wart, later suspending domestic exports as well.
Genome Atlantic, a biotech company based in Nova Scotia, gave the UPEI researchers $20,000 to find a more wart-resistant potato variety and prevent future bans. This was one of eight climate change-related projects funded by the Genome Atlantic Small-Scale Climate Change Fund.
According to the CFIA, potato wart is a “quarantinable pest” and the only way to control it is to limit its spreading via infected soil, seeds and tools. Once infected, the fields produce fewer potatoes, which become unmarketable from deformities but do not harm humans.
The CFIA reports finding potato wart in 34 fields on P.E.I. since 2000, and the export of seed potatoes from P.E.I. remains prohibited, even after the export of potatoes as food to the U.S. resumed April 1. Greg Donald, general manager of the PEI Potato Board that represents all P.E.I. potato farmers, didn’t understand the need for the ban.
“Over the last 21 years, I could probably put all the potato wart potatoes in the back of my pickup truck,” Donald said.
Xiuquan (Xander) Wang, a UPEI associate professor working on the project, said the funding from Genome Atlantic will go toward comparing the genes of different potato varieties. By finding a wart-resistant gene, the researchers could either modify current varieties to be more resilient to diseases like potato wart or make an entirely new wart-resistant variety.
“There will be a very, very complicated process to essentially commercialize a new variety,” Wang said. “That’s something beyond our capacity, but from a research perspective, it’s more about providing some scientific information so that they can at least utilize that when they are at that stage to incorporate or introduce some new varieties.”
“The changing climate condition might be a good trigger for this kind of potato disease.”
Richard Donald, a Genome Atlantic consultant who is unrelated to Greg Donald, said the research on potato wart could provide a broader understanding of how climate change might affect agricultural pests and diseases in Atlantic Canada.
“We felt that this was a timely investment,” Richard Donald said.
“The changing climate condition might be a good trigger for this kind of potato disease, so potato wart is one of them, but potentially [for] other diseases,” Wang said.
Greg Donald added that climate change has both pros and cons for potato farmers. By sowing a diverse range of crops, using less soil and planting cover crops that prevent soil erosion, farmers are already adapting to the effects.
“With the changing climate, it’s creating more opportunities for growing different types of food,” Greg Donald said. “On the negative side, we’re seeing much more extreme weather conditions.”
Farmers already saw such extreme weather conditions in 2020, Wang said, when P.E.I. experienced a drought.
The strategy of introducing climate-resistant potatoes is already being used, according to Greg Donald. But he said more research is needed to address different pathotypes—varieties of organisms that cause diseases like potato wart and could affect new potato varieties.
“We have two different pathotypes here of potato wart,” Greg Donald said. “[It’s important] to make sure that those varieties are resistant to both pathotypes.”
Greg Donald said the farmers he works with are confident in the monitoring measures in place and committed to maintaining P.E.I.’s stature in the potato industry.
“Whether it’s managing a weed or an insect or whatever, it’s most effective to look at a number of ways … to manage that pest,” he said. “Resistant varieties is one really good strategy. There’s other ways too, but that one is of interest and is one that’s being employed, and we’ll need to learn more about it.”
Featured image by Emmanuella Onyeme.
