Didier Andrivon of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) talks about the characteristics of a disease that once killed 1,5 million people in Ireland: late blight, also known as Phytophthora Infestans.
I would like to speculate that a disease that peaked more than a hundred years ago is not capable of becoming a problem these days, but in reality it is not so: potato late blight continues to develop and manifest itself in new territories.
Potato late blight is currently costing the European Union (EU) € 1 billion a year.
Reflecting on this topic, Andrivon brings us to the most important questions: how can farmers stop the spread of P. Infestans? What causes such rapid changes in this disease? How can EU legislation help control disease outbreaks?
He explains that climate change is in fact a factor in increasing the susceptibility of crops to disease. However, so far scientists have at their disposal only “preliminary explanations” of the rate of change of late blight. Latin America, East Asia and East Africa (sub-Saharan Africa) have witnessed the appearance of mutated late blight, which indicates the unpredictability of this disease.
As global food production is expected to grow by 2050% by 70, achieving tangible results in tackling this global threat is becoming increasingly important.
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