On July 9-11, 2018, the Scientific and Practical Conference "Current State and Prospects for the Development of Potato Breeding and Seed Production" and the Scientific and Practical Seminar "Regulatory Regulation and Modern Methods for the Diagnosis of Pathogens in Potato Seed" were held at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Research and Development.
The organizers were the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Russian Academy of Sciences, FSBI VNIIKH.
The events were attended by more than 100 people, including scientists, specialists in the cultivation and storage of potatoes, employees of the Rosselkhozcenter and the Rosselkhoznadzor.
Honorary guests of the conference were: Sergey Mitin, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the Council of the Federation on Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management; Maxim Borisov, professor, rector of RGAZU; Ekaterina Zhuravleva, Assistant Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation; Alexey Krasilnikov, Executive Director of the Potato Union; Dmitry Paspekov, chairman of the FSBI "State Commission"; Anatoly Polevisninov, Head of the Branch of FSBI Rosselkhoztsentr in the Irkutsk Region; Aleksey Soldatenko, Director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution for Health and Social Development. The conference was attended by delegations from Tajikistan, Korea and China. Within the framework of the events, reports were made covering the current state of potato growing.
Special attention was paid to the achievements in the field of creating new varieties of potatoes, while scientists said that their main task was not a formal increase in the assortment, but getting really popular promising varieties. So the head of the department of the experimental gene pool of VNIIKH E.A. Simakov drew the attention of the audience to the fact that at the moment about forty varieties of potatoes suitable for processing into French fries have been entered into the State Register of Breeding Achievements Admitted for Use, but producers work only with the Innovator, since the issue of economics is of great importance for them ( amount of waste during cleaning, oil consumption, etc.).
Soil control as an experiment
On July 10, an excursion was organized for the conference participants to the test site of soil control of varieties of VNIIKH, where you could see about 200 varieties of 60 varieties of potatoes. Samples for testing were provided by domestic agricultural producers (about 20 organizations). The purpose of the tests: verification of varietal identity of the seed material and its phytopathological assessment.
An excursion around the site was conducted by B.V. He explained that this work is still being carried out as an experiment, but in the future all categories of seed coming into trade will be tested, this measure will help reduce the number of unscrupulous sellers in the market.
In the face of climate change
The scientific-practical seminar "Normative regulation and modern methods of diagnostics of pathogens in seed growing of potatoes" opened with a report by BV Anisimov. The presentation touched upon an interesting topic of the influence of climate change (an increase in the average annual temperature, an increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere), on the quality of potatoes. As the speaker emphasized, almost everywhere there is an increase in the average size of tubers, but more voids in the core are fixed; the probability of secondary growth of tubers and the appearance of growth, herbicidal and viral cracks increases; the storage period is reduced (more rotten tubers are noted due to dampness in the winter). Climate change has also led to an increase in the biological diversity of potato pathogens. In different regions of Russia, experts observe an increase in the number of aphids, wireworms, and scoop; there is an increase in nematode breeding cycles; The distribution area of the Colorado potato beetle is expanding.
Under these conditions, the importance of modern methods for the diagnosis of potato diseases (primarily seed) is difficult to overestimate. Actually, most of the reports delivered at the seminar were devoted to them. The participants of the event received detailed information on the latest developments of Russian scientists in this field (including the economical domestic multiparameter test systems used to determine the total viral infection of potatoes). We hope that in the near future the achievements of scientists will become reliable and effective tools of practitioners.