Generation of residue, efficacy and crop safety data for pesticide minor-use permit applications – CPR
15 April 2014Enhancing Market Attitudes Towards IPM and Sustainable Vegetable Production Practices
29 August 2014Everybody loves Australian-grown sweetpotatoes. In 2009/10, Queensland and northern New South Wales producers marketed 850,000 cartons. Back then, you could just about guarantee the sweetpotato was a gold-skinned, gold-fleshed variety Beauregard, as it comprised 94% of the market. This dependence on one variety concerned the Australian sweetpotato industry, in case pests or diseases wiped them out. They also wanted to grow and sell new sweetpotato types, to continue to be a sustainable, profitable vegetable sector. In 2010, Australian Sweetpotato Growers Inc. (ASPG) collaborated with scientists from the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFFQ) and Horticulture Australia Ltd (HAL), to get new cultivars into the industry. Our project team collected 50 domestic and international cultivars, checked them for diseases, and removed any viruses we found. We then multiplied the clean planting material, and undertook extensive evaluations on ASPG grower’s properties. During the next 3 years, growers and scientists compared cultivars in detailed experiments and commercial-scale plantings around Bundaberg, Cudgen and Rockhampton, where most of Australia’s sweetpotatoes are grown. At regular field days, attended by more than 80% of Australia’s sweetpotato growers, scientists and industry eventually narrowed the field to the top 4-5 exciting new cultivars. As a result, in 2014, growers are planting increasing areas of a new gold sweetpotato, Evangeline. Its size and shape are highly desired by consumers, and it has a strong, gold flesh colour. The industry also has a smooth, shapely red-skinned, white-fleshed sweetpotato, Southern Star, which performed well in evaluations. And there is excitement around new purple-fleshed cultivars Eclipse and Philipino White. These new cultivars are not without issues. Evangeline can occasionally split, or develop a confusing red/purple colour skin, which the current market doesn’t like. Likewise, Southern Star occasionally displays a less attractive bronze hued skin, whilst the purple flesh colour of Eclipse and Philipino White can be inconsistent. The industry wants to understand and overcome these issues, desiring R&D into successfully growing and marketing these new cultivars. Industry/science partnerships will continue to drive the Australian Sweetpotato Industry forward. In the course of our project, QLD/NSW sweetpotato production has grown to 2,050,000 cartons, with 5% of production from the new cultivars. Those percentages will surely climb, as growers become more confident, and exploit their performance and market potential.