“If you’re looking at your field and thinking, what the heck’s going on and you know it’s not fertility, it’s not moisture or topography, but you’re seeing kind of dead patches late in the season. Chances are it’s probably PED.” said Griffin Bailey, Little Potato Company’s regional agronomist for Eastern Canada.

WHY IT MATTERS: PED causes tuber size reduction, resulting in yield losses of 10 to 15 per cent under moderate pressure and 30 to 50 per cent under severe pressure.

Verticillium alone causes leaves to curl and change colour, leading to plant decline. But when the nematode is also present, the problem worsens significantly, Bailey told Ontario Potato Conference attendees in Guelph on March 5.

“The verticillium has to work pretty hard to infect the root on its own. If the nematode is there, feeding and creating an open wound, it’s kind of like opening the door for the verticillium,” he explained. “And infection happens a lot faster, a lot more readily, and the damage can be a lot more severe.”

Infection starts at the root and moves up, with symptoms appearing after flowering, causing the lower leaves to yellow, brown and die. A key indicator is that one side of the leaf, or the whole plant, wilts and browns while the other half remains green and healthy. The plant can also appear to wilt during the day and recover at night, or show flagging, where the plant remains upright despite being dead.

Non-visual symptoms that occur beforehand include reduced photosynthesis and transpiration, and increased leaf surface temperature.

In 2021, Griffin launched a study of Ontario’s potato-producing land, including 19 commercial fields in long-term potato production, to quantify root lesion nematode populations and verticillium soil inoculum pressure by using soil samples. Additionally, a grower questionnaire examined historical management practices — main crops grown, cover crop use, organic amendments, and pesticide use — to assess potential impact.

‘We do need alternatives’

Fortunately, Ontario’s nematode populations aren’t very high; however, several fields are at high risk of PED due to verticillium populations.

Bailey explained the threshold for nematodes to cause damage is over 1,000; if verticillium is present, that threshold drops to one.

In 2022, he focused on four fields due to field variability. He used small plots, about two rows of vines by 10 metres instead of 50 to 100 acres. Even in these small areas, he found significant variability within fields, despite their close proximity and similar management.

“It’s really, really hard to put your finger on what might be happening on your farm. You can sample all day long, every year, and maybe not totally understand the exact level that you have,” Bailey said.

Chemical fumigation for PED is expensive, highly regulated, and kills both good and bad pathogens, providing growers with a costly double-edged sword.

“It’s a good tool to have, certainly, but we do need alternatives,” he explained. “There’s a lot of good research on cover cropping, organic amenities and biochemical options.”

At the Simcoe Research Station in Norfolk County, Bailey ran several trial treatments over three years, testing biofumigants, along with potato trials using grower Chuck Emre’s biofumigant system:

• Continuous potato (CP) — no crop rotation, use of cover crops or fumigant intervention.
• Continuous fumigated potato (CPCF) — no crop rotation or cover crops, plus annual chemical fumigant intervention.
• Continuous potato with rye and oilseed radish (CPRR) — no crop rotation, use of PED-supressing cover crops, no fumigant intervention.
• Charles Emre mix with initial fumigation (CEMF) — Rotation with full-season cover crops (Caliente 199 mustard and arugula, followed by pearl millet), winter cover crops of fall rye and oilseed radish, and biofumigation in the second year, all following an initial chemical fumigation prior to treatment application.
• Charles Emre mix (CEM) — adaptation of CEMF without the initial chemical fumigation prior to the treatment application.
• Soil building with pearl millet (SBFM) — tested soil-building principles following a one-time chemical fumigation by rotating potato with a summer cover crop of pearl millet, use of winter cover crops and biofumigation in the second year.
• Soil building with hairy vetch (SBVF) — tested soil building principles following a one-time chemical fumigation by rotating potato with a summer cover crop of hairy vetch, use of winter cover crops and biofumigation in the second year.
• Corn rotation (CR) — conventional rotation, potato being rotated with field corn and use of winter cover crop.

Soil samples were collected each spring and fall, and each plot was irrigated and used the Superior potato variety.

Bailey reported in 2021, before the trials began, verticillium numbers were “pretty low” but jumped across all treatments after potatoes were planted.

He noted that verticillium inoculum was reduced and potato yields increased following the initial chloropicrin application; however, repeated applications provided no benefit.

“Our numbers kind of went up and went down as the season went on, but none of our treatments made any difference after that first year,” he said.

Given that it was virgin potato land, the first year of fumigation caused a “fertilizer effect,” with a yield boost, a higher proportion of larger potatoes, and a lower proportion of smaller potatoes. However, there was no discernible benefit from fumigation or cover crop on yield in the second year.

Improved soil health helps

In the third year, potato yields were slightly higher with the Charles Emre mix and soil-building methods, indicating that improving soil health worked as well as, or better than, other methods for managing PED and supporting higher yields.

Bailey joked that if someone wanted a difficult career, studying nematodes was a good choice, since root-lesion nematode populations were not influenced by the agronomic practices tested in the study.

“I will say that the (nematode) numbers are quite low, so maybe under severe population, you might see a little bit more of a difference,” he said.

The 2023 season was conducive to PED, with signs beginning in the first week of July and reaching severe pressure by the end of August.

“We had a pretty wet spring with a lot of moisture, and then a very hot, dry setting,” he explained. “Those are perfect conditions for PED.”

By the end of the trial, a significant difference in disease severity emerged, with continuous potato showing higher severity than the Charles Emre mix and soil-building treatments.

“Just rotating your crops, extending the rotation length, is a really good way to manage this disease in the long term,” Bailey said.

When testing the soil fungal-bacterial ratio (fungal DNA relative to bacterial DNA), Bailey found it was higher in crop-diverse treatments than in continuous potato treatments. Treatments with the highest disease severity had the lowest ratio, suggesting that soil health can directly improve crop resilience to stress and disease.

The post Crop rotation, soil-building offer resilience against potato early dying appeared first on Farmtario.

In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine tablets used for killing pests through fumigation, but said they could not be “in direct contact with cereals,” thereby threatening exports to some of France’s largest markets, including Algeria, Egypt and Morocco.

The ban on direct contact of phosphine with cereals was due to take effect on April 25.

But after government intervention, ANSES amended the authorization on Thursday to include a reference to an EU regulation that says that maximum residue limits for pesticides do not apply to non-EU country exports if it is possible to demonstrate that the treatments are required or accepted.

Grain exporters group Synacomex praised the move.

“Synacomex welcomes the fact that the European regulation is being respected, allowing French cereals to continue supplying customers who rely on us,” said Christelle Tailhardat, Synacomex’s secretary general.

The pesticide is still not permitted in direct contact with cereals for European Union destinations, the document showed.

If inhaled in large doses, phosphine can cause respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal disorders.

Canada allows the use of phosphine and similar fumigants in stored commodities, but a 2015 re-evaluation by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency added a requirement for buffer zones of at least 50 metres between treated storage and spaces occupied by people or livestock.

Canada’s buffer zone rules, in place since July 2016, also apply to stored commodities on ships while in port, and to fumigated rail cars parked at terminals or during “prolonged stops” en route.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post French agency drops fumigant ban on non-EU grain exports appeared first on Farmtario.

In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine tablets used for killing pests though fumigation, but said they could not be “in direct contact with cereals,” thereby threatening exports to markets that require the process, including Algeria, Egypt and Morocco.

“There is nothing to worry about for exports, these will continue. It’s good for our exporters, it’s good for food security of these (importing) countries,” Trade Minister Olivier Becht said, adding that steps would be taken by April 25 when the ANSES decision takes effect.

France intends to refer to an EU regulation that says that maximum residue limits for pesticides do not apply to non-EU country exports if it is possible to demonstrate that the treatments are required or accepted, Becht said.

France will act at the request of importing countries that require the molecule, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told Parliament.

He said that EU countries including Germany and Bulgaria were also using the pesticide on grain exports to Algeria.

If inhaled in large doses, phosphine can cause respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal disorders.

The questions in Parliament followed a weekend report by l’Opinion newspaper that said French grain exports would come to a halt from April 25.

With the deadline looming, French grain producers had called for a swift response from the government.

“We are depriving ourselves of a quarter of the outlets for French cereals,” Eric Thirouin, head of French grain growers group AGPB, told Reuters.

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, will be the main beneficiary if the ban is confirmed, Thirouin added.

Exports put at risk by the ANSES decision amount to about four billion euros (C$5.91 billion) in trade surplus, compared with a total grain trade surplus of about 11 billion euros last year, he said.

Canada allows the use of phosphine and similar fumigants in stored commodities, but a 2015 re-evaluation by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has required buffer zones of at least 50 metres between treated storage and spaces occupied by people or livestock.

Canada’s buffer zone rules, in place since July 2016, also apply to stored commodities on ships while in port and fumigated rail cars parked at terminals or during “prolonged stops” en route.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post France says pesticide ban will not hit grain exports appeared first on Farmtario.

Canada’s Trade Minister Mary Ng met with her Indian counterpart Shri Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Friday to discuss economic relationships between the two countries.

While highlighting existing trade relationships, the ministers also agreed to formally relaunch negotiations on an India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), with an interim early progress trade agreement (EPTA) to be concluded earlier as a transitional step.

The two countries also “agreed to undertake intensified work with respect to the recognition of Canada’s systems approach to pest risk management in pulses,” according to a joint statement.

India will consider allowing the import of unfumigated Canadian pulses without penalty until a more permanent solution is reached. Currently, Canadian pulses face a penalty when entering India, as the methyl bromide required as a fumigant by India is seen as a pollutant by Canada and is also said to be ineffective in cold temperatures.

“Canada’s pulse industry welcomes (Friday’s) announcement that the governments of Canada and India have formally re-launched the India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations and will prioritize concluding an early progress trade agreement,” Pulse Canada chair Corey Loessin said Friday in a separate statement.

“We are encouraged to see the priorities of the Canadian pulse industry featured prominently in trade talks, specifically the focus on advancing Canada’s system-based approach and the inclusion of additional sanitary and phytosanitary measures in an early progress agreement,” he added.

“Pulse Canada supports a continued focus on achieving predictable and transparent policies governing the trade in pulses between Canada, the world’s largest pulse-exporting country, and India, the world’s largest pulse-consuming country.”

India’s demand for Canadian pulses can ebb and flow depending on the country’s own production and import tariffs.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

The post Pulse sector hails renewed trade talks with India appeared first on Farmtario.

CEO Frankie Ng was earlier quoted by Swiss newspapers Handelszeitung and Tribune de Geneve as saying an analyst report that the company could shed 2,000-3,000 of its 97,000 jobs seemed quite realistic, adding that the actual figure would probably be toward the lower end of that range.

The impact on SGS’s Geneva base would be minimal, he was quoted as saying.

“It’s not a restructuring, it’s a streamlining of the organization,” Rufenacht told Reuters.

He said natural turnover in the workforce meant that about 14,000 people left the company of their own accord each year, giving an opportunity to reduce overall numbers without any sudden cuts.

Shares in SGS, which provides services to the agriculture, minerals and oil, gas and chemicals industries, were down 4.6 per cent at 2,418 Swiss francs (C$3,204.80) Thursday morning after half-year results showed adjusted operating income up 5.4 per cent year on year, at 489 million francs.

SGS has operated in Canada since 1948, starting in agriculture and expanding into energy, metals, minerals and other sectors, offering testing and analysis, data gathering, audit, certification, inspection, verification, pest control and fumigation services.

Its Canadian business today includes its head office in Mississauga and over 40 labs and offices across eight provinces and Yukon.

Its agricultural business today also includes three SGS BioVision Seed Research labs, in Grande Prairie and Sherwood Park, Alta. and in Winnipeg, all of which came to SGS when it took over BioVision Seed Research in 2017.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Miles in Geneva. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Inspections group SGS to slim workforce appeared first on Farmtario.

The Andean country suspended aerial fumigation of coca, the raw ingredient in cocaine, with the Monsanto herbicide in 2015 after the World Health Organization linked glyphosate to cancer. The decision was later backed by the Constitutional Court.

But at a hearing Thursday, Duque said greater production of coca in the wake of the decision was threatening to derail efforts to end more than five decades of conflict.

“My respectful request is to modify the ruling, a modification that takes into consideration these serious effects,” Duque told the court, which is considering the case but has not set a date to rule on possible changes.

“This expansion of crops really has done tremendous damage to constitutional order, to legal order, to the environment, to territorial security and to the protection of fundamental rights.”

Colombia has long been ranked as the world’s top producer of cocaine, and figures compiled by the United Nations for 2017 showed the largest potential output since the organization’s record-keeping began, with production of the drug at 1,379 tonnes.

Manual eradication is expensive and less effective than aerial fumigation, Duque said, and the government needs all tools at its disposal.

Manual eradication puts military personnel at risk of landmines and sniper shootings, and can only eliminate between two to three hectares of coca per day, Duque said.

Aerial fumigation can destroy 120 to 150 hectares per day and costs 2.6 times less, he said.

“We cannot reject any tools,” Duque said. “The exponential expansion of illicit crops threatens the construction of peace in our country.”

Duque added his government has eradicated more than 80,000 hectares since he took office in August, but those hectares were at constant risk of being replanted.

“I’m not coming to ask for a blank cheque, I’m not coming to minimize any risk, I’m coming to say that this government has the responsibility, the conviction and the desire to integrate all the tools,” he said.

Chemicals and gasoline are being leeched into the Amazon in southern Colombia because of coca cultivation, Duque said.

The United States, Colombia’s top ally, has repeatedly expressed concern about the rise in coca output.

A 2016 peace deal between Colombia and one group of leftist rebels includes funding meant to encourage farmers to replace coca.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julia Symmes Cobb.

The post Colombian president defends use of glyphosate on coca crops appeared first on Farmtario.

Thai government officials said U.S. shipments required certificates showing they had been “properly fumigated.” Traders said sales had effectively been halted as the two governments negotiate which gas is best for the fumigation.

Thailand in 2017 was the fourth-biggest overseas market for so-called DDGs, importing 738,413 tonnes of the high-protein feed used at poultry and livestock farms, USDA data showed.

Osama El-Lissy, a deputy administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), said Thailand discovered the Khapra beetle in two container shipments of U.S. DDGs, in August and November.

Thailand officials from Jan. 1 required all shipments to be fumigated with methyl bromide. However, many U.S. shippers would prefer to use phosphine, El-Lissy said, adding that USDA was sending information to Thailand over the weekend.

“Right now, I can’t ship,” one U.S. DDGs exporter said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. “Trade is shut down.”

The issue threatened to dent what had been a rare bright spot for U.S. ethanol makers. An oversupply of ethanol has forced many biofuel makers to cut production. China, which formerly was the top importer of both DDGs and ethanol, has largely stopped buying the products due to the Washington-Beijing trade war.

But relatively robust demand for DDGs elsewhere in Asia and in Mexico has bolstered prices, helping ethanol producers offset losses in the biofuel market.

Bids for bulk cargoes of DDGs shipped by barge to the U.S. Gulf Coast export market were about $176 per tonne on Thursday, down from $185 per tonne a week ago, according to a U.S. broker (all figures US$).

Vietnam halted imports of DDGs in 2017 before banning imports after officials there said shipments were contaminated by beetles. That ban was lifted after U.S. and Vietnamese officials agreed on fumigation protocols.

“It’s one more market we can’t muck up,” another U.S. trader for a ethanol producer and DDGs exporter said of Thailand.

The Canadian Grain Commission classifies the Khapra beetle as a quarantine pest but notes the species is not established in Canada.

The beetle thrives in hot, dry climates and thus has a competitive advantage against other pests in stores of hot, dry grain, according to the CGC. Larvae feed at first on damaged grain pieces, attack whole grains as they mature and may “completely destroy” infested commodities.

— Michael Hirtzer reports on commodity markets for Reuters from Chicago; additional reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bangkok. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Beetles halt U.S. DDGs exports to Thailand appeared first on Farmtario.

The Indian government has issued a letter announcing the exemption would be extended to Dec. 31, Jade Dyson, head of the Singapore office of grain trade association Gafta, said in a Twitter post showing a copy of the document.

An Indian government official later confirmed the document was correct.

Methyl bromide was once widely used as a pesticide but is now banned or restricted in most parts of the world, including in countries that supply India with certain crops.

The Indian authorities have granted several exemptions to their methyl bromide rule in order to allow imports.

While Canada’s pulse exports have previously benefited from such exemptions, India has separately imposed tariffs on imports on peas, lentils and chickpeas that have substantially curbed Canadian pulse traffic to the country.

— Reporting for Reuters by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai.

The post India extends crop fumigation exemption until year-end appeared first on Farmtario.

“India is not the market that it was eight months ago and it emphasizes the need to find alternate markets,” Gordon Bacon said.

“If we just keep pushing the same production into the markets that were already there, all we’re going to do is lower the price on a global basis, not just in India.”

Bacon was in India during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit Feb. 18-24 and for the India Pulses and Grains Association’s Pulse Conclave, attended by representatives from pulse-producing countries and held Feb. 14-16.

Over the last few months the Indian government has been placing tariffs on pulse imports. First, India placed a 50 per cent tariff on pea imports, then a 30 per cent tariff on chickpeas and lentils. The chickpea tariff was later raised to 40 per cent and then on March 1 it was raised to 60 per cent for desi chickpeas.

The latest chickpea tariff increase didn’t affect Canada much, as Canada mostly grows kabuli chickpeas.

The tariffs, Bacon said, “affect all of us as exporting nations. So that was really where some of the discussion in Canada got a little too narrowly focused because it wasn’t about Canada.”

India has applied the tariffs to support its farmers. However reports out of India have said domestic pulse prices have been falling below the government’s minimum support price.

“Nothing’s going to change in India until domestic prices start to rise and until consumers are the ones out on the street protesting the high prices for pulses,” Bacon said.

Trudeau’s visit did help the Canadian pulse industry, according to Bacon. For months the pulse industry has been pushing for federal government intervention over the pulse trade issues with India.

“Unlike Canada what goes on in food prices and agriculture is of an enormous economic and political importance in India,” Bacon said.

For years the Canadian pulse industry has been receiving pulse fumigation exemptions. The Indian government requires pulses shipped to the country to be fumigated before arrival. However, the fumigation process doesn’t work well in cold weather and Canada doesn’t have the nematode pest India is trying to keep out.

Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed pulses during their meeting in India. A joint release stated the two sides would work together on an agreement over fumigation and for more transparency and predictability in regards to market access.

“We didn’t come home with anything changed (immediately)… but we did come home with a timeline on the fumigation issue and opened the door for some discussion on the food security, transparency and predictability issues,” Bacon said.

There have been other recent developments which have been positive for the Canadian pulse industry. Those include increased demand for peas from China and the pet food industry, and the announcement that Protein Industries Canada, a Prairie-based plant protein research and development organization, had received federal funding.

“It’s not any one area. It’s a whole range of things. And I think this is really where the industry has to create additional demand to replace the uncertainty that India now represents,” Bacon said.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting.

The post Pulse weekly outlook: India not a guaranteed market appeared first on Farmtario.

The government said Thursday in the Gazette of India its tariff is to be imposed immediately, due to circumstances which make it necessary to take immediate action.

Reuters reported Wednesday that India’s cabinet had approved doubling state purchases of oilseeds and pulses from farmers, in a bid to boost local output and prevent distressed sales.

India originally placed a 30 per cent tariff on imports of chickpeas and lentils on Dec. 21, which had followed a 50 per cent tariff on pea imports on Nov. 8 — the maximum allowed under World Trade Organization rules.

The chickpea duty had been raised to 40 per cent on Feb. 7.

The tariffs were placed in order to support Indian farmers, who faced lower commodity prices following large world crops of pulses.

The Indian government has previously said it wants to reach self-sufficiency for pulses, though many analysts have said that isn’t possible, as India relies on variable monsoon rains for its growing season.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week visited India and reached an agreement with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on fumigation issues which Canadian pulses had faced upon on import into the country.

The joint statement announcing the agreement didn’t mention import tariffs.

Last year Canada exported 10,000 tonnes of chickpeas to India, according to Statistics Canada.

The post India hikes chickpea duty again appeared first on Farmtario.