1 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Report to the 68 th Working Party on Agricultural Quality Standards by Pier Giacomo Bianchi Geneva 5th of November 2013

2 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES OUTLOOK Events 2013 Amendments to the Standard UNECE Guide to Seed Potato Diseases, Pests and Defects Promotion and capacity building Future programme Proposal to the Working Party

3 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES EVENTS 2013 Changins - CH (17 th of January ): Bureau Geneva (11 th -13 th of March): Specialised Section (41 st Session) Fargo –ND (28 th of September – 2 nd of October): Extended Bureau

4 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Specialised Section in Geneva - Attendance of 13 Countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and United States of America) EU was also represented

5 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Proposal of amendments to the Standard (ECE/TRADE/C/WP.7/2013/9) Amend the definition of produce (provision I of the Standard) and delete the definition of seed potatoes from Annex VII to include all the species of tuber forming of Solanum spp. Amend the provision concerning the variety (provision II of the Standard) to recommend the official description and the reference sample of the variety to be available to the DA

6 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Proposal of amendments to the Standard (ECE/TRADE/C/WP.7/2013/9) (cont.) Add a sentence on level and timing of crop inspection (Annex II, section B.2) to recommend more intensive rate of inspection to identify the off types in pre-basic TC Change tolerances for dry and wet rot for lots of Basic and Certified seed (Annex III, section A.2.) to limit wet rot to 0,5 % (instead of 1 %) by weight

7 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Proposal of amendments to the Standard (ECE/TRADE/C/WP.7/2013/9) (cont.) Add a new Section on tuber inspection procedures (Annex III, section C) dealing with Scope of inspection Inspection method Calculation of results Additional measures Second opinion inspections

8 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Proposal of amendments to the Standard (ECE/TRADE/C/WP.7/2013/9) (cont.) Add definition of (Annex VII of S1) : Clonal selection Clonal stock External defects Micro-propagative multiplication Parent material Rot (wet and dry)

9 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Common position on cut seed tubers This practice is not allowed in all the certification schemes, but is not against UNECE Standard as cut tuber is a defect only countable when is expected to have a negative impact on yielding capacity or storability or if is likely to lead to secondary infection. This is not the case where conditions to minimize the risk of spread of diseases are enforced. Cut seed tubers has also implications in case of varieties protected under a Plant Variety Protection system.

10 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Matters being discussed : tolerance for external defects in respect of Mechanical damages Severe cracks Pressure bruises Misshapen tubers Glassiness (BE, NL, FR, UK, USA)

11 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Matters being discussed (cont.): Sprouted tubers (FL, DE, AU, UK, US) Potato flea beetle and Potato tuber moth Combination of mild and severe viruses into one field tolerance (US) Enhancing consistency with IPPC (NZ, CA, UK)

12 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Matters being discussed (cont.): Monitoring scientific developments on PVY, Dickeya, zebra chip disease and herbicide damage Lot tolerances by weight (as currently are) or by number (SE) Promotional leaflet (US) Impact of the revision of the EU directive on seed potatoes on the Standard Guide on “Seed potato field inspection. Recommended practices” (CA, FL, DE, UK)

13 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Election of Officer The Specialised Section re-elected Pier Giacomo Bianchi (IT) as Chair Willem Schrage (US) John Kerr (UK) as Vice Chairs

14 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES UNECE Guide to Seed Potato Diseases, Pests and Defects - time frame Initiative July 2012 (RU, UK, CH) Initiative approved by WP-7 11/2012 First draft by UK at the SS 2013 Final draft by the working Group (UK, FR, RU, NL, US) at the Fargo meeting Proposal of the text to the WP 2013

15 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES UNECE Guide to Seed Potato Diseases, Pests and Defects (ECE/TRADE/C/WP.7/2013/10) Explains diseases, pests and defects regulated by the Standard Intends to assist seed potato inspectors and producers in assessing seed potato quality in conjunction with the use of the Standard

16 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES For 15 fungal pathogens, 8 viruses and viroids, 7 bacterial pathogens and phytoplasmas, 3 nematodes, 4 insects and 7 other disorders the Guide provides information on: Status in the Standard Recommended diagnostics Symptoms on plants and tubers Inoculum Means of control Contains 150 high-quality illustrating photographs

17 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Status in UNECE: Controlled indirectly through tolerance for shrivelled tubers Recommended Diagnostics: Visual observation of tubers (with a hand lens) and identification of fungus on specific medium. Symptoms: Tuber skin blemish disease occurring as silvery, irregularly shaped lesions present at harvest. Symptoms may become more severe in store, particularly under warm humid conditions but lesion expansion is very limited compared with silver scurf. Lesions are similar to but less well defined than silver scurf. The oval, pinhead black bodies (microsclerotia, bottom right) are often visible on the skin and may be readily diagnosed using a hand lens. Infection of the growing plant may contribute to early dying disease in warm climates. Inoculum: Soil-borne and favoured by wet soil conditions. Control: Long rotations.

18 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Promotion of the Standard and capacity building Over the past 5 years the Specialized Section made a focused effort to promote the Standard in the Russian Federation. It resulted in adopting 2 national standards, based on the UNECE: “Seed Potatoes. Technical Conditions” and “Seed Potatoes. Formal Acceptance and Methods of Analysis”. The UNECE Standard was also allowed, as reference, within the voluntary system of seed potato certification. The necessary infrastructure has been set up, like the centre in Vladikavkaz, to produce seed meeting the requirements of the UNECE Standard.

19 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Promotion of the Standard and capacity building Regional Northern Caucasus Centre for Seed Potato Production (Vladikavkaz, Russian Federation) put into operation in 2013 Project undertaken jointly by the Specialized Section (Swiss experts from Agroscope ACW), the A.G. Lorkh Institute for Potato Cultivation and FAT-AGRO (Vladikavkaz) At the Russian Agroindustrial Fair “Golden Autumn” (Moscow, October 2013) the project gained 2 gold medals for the quality of seed and its innovative character

Promotion and capacity-building Biotechnological laboratory to produce healthy in-vitro source material (microplants and microtubers) Regional Northern Caucasus Centre for Seed Potato Production (Vladikavkaz, Russian Federation) UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES

Promotion and capacity-building Regional Northern Caucasus Centre for Seed Potato Production (Vladikavkaz, Russian Federation) put into operation in 2013 Diagnostics laboratory to test for virus pathogens UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES

Promotion and capacity-building Regional Northern Caucasus Centre for Seed Potato Production (Vladikavkaz, Russian Federation) put into operation in 2013 Production of mini-tubers in protected environment UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES

Promotion and capacity-building Regional Northern Caucasus Centre for Seed Potato Production (Vladikavkaz, Russian Federation) put into operation in 2013 Production of first field generations at high altitude under clean phytosanitary conditions UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES

Promotion and capacity-building Practical application of the Standard to survey the quality of seed potatoes in West and Central Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Burundi) and testing the Standard under production conditions in the Sub-Sahara region Project carried out by our Swiss colleagues from Agroscope ACW UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES

25 UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES Future programme 2014 Extended Bureau meeting (Melbourne, AU, April 2014) 42 nd Session of the Specialized Section (Geneva, October 2014)

The Specialized Section on Standardization of Seed potatoes submits to the Working Party for approval: Revised version of the Standard “UNECE Guide to Seed Potato Diseases, Pests and Defects” Asks also to approve: Initiation of work on the Guide for inspectors: “Seed potato field inspection. Recommended practices” UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES

Thank you UNECE SPECIALISED SECTION ON SEED POTATOES