La Trinidad, Benguet – The local potato industry in Benguet, particularly along the vegetable belt in upland northern towns, is being ravaged by pests.
Worrying vegetable farmers, the bacterial wilt and the potato cyst nematode, said to be two of the most damaging pests on the tubers, is though, being met head-on by the Bureau of Plant Industry.
“The bacterial wilt is a soil and seed borne-disease that attacks potato plants,” said BPI National Crop and Research and Development Center chief Jesus Aspuria.
The agency now is on its toes in saving the country’s potato production by methods in detecting if the soil is infected with the pests.
Wilting of plants were observed one month after planting when attacked by Bacterial Wilt.
The “Potato Cyst Nematode” on the other hand, is a soil-pest that also affects the potato plants. It decreases production by 50-70 percent.
When there is severe infestation, Aspuria said, the tubers show stunted growth. Although the potatoes will still bear fruit, it will no longer grow normally, he said.
The BPI is now using the Fenwick-can method to determine soil infestation.
To root out the problem, Aspuria said, the screening of different potato varieties is being carried out to select for resistance or tolerant varieties.
For the Potato Cyst Nematode, he said that Trichoderma was found most effective in preventing this pest. Trichoderma is a microorganism used on other studies that is used against soil-borne pathogens including bacteria and fungus.
The first time Trichoderma was introduced was three years ago and that mass production of this ‘beneficial microorganism’ is being done at BPI- Baguio Natonal Crop Research and Development Center and are distributed to farmer clients in the region.
For the bacterial wilt disease, they encourage the farmers to use crop rotation method. He said that they tell farmers to plant non-solanaceous crops to avoid the spread of the disease.
In the Philippines, potatoes are concentrated in the Cordillera Administrative Region and Davao .
Aspuria said CAR is the oldest potato-growing region which annually covers 10,900 hectares of land.
Benguet supplies 62 percent of the annual potato production in the country followed by Davao (14 percent), Mountain. Province (12 percent) and Bukidnon (10 percent).