Potato Review

POTATOES IN PRACTICE brokers and commercial companies, acting as a central point for research and translation of innovation to accelerate adoption of new research products across the potato value chain. Lesley said potato is the world’s third most important staple food crop with UK potato production valued at £771m in 2019.” “We established Scottishpotatoes.org in 2019 with partners SRUC and SASA, and recently we have come together with ADAS to establish Crop Storage Solutions to respond to the closure of AHDB Potatoes and the need for continuity and ensuring the future of GB potato storage research,” she said. “It now seems a natural progression to go further and explore the potential to establish a potato innovation and translation hub given the wider industry needs. By working together, we can harness the new technologies, ideas and opportunities to create and deliver solutions.” The new hub will be based in Scotland, but will benefit the whole UK potato industry. A major new project will tackle pests in potatoes through the protection of clean land and the management of land already infested with pests. The project focussing specifically on tackling potato cyst nematode (PCN), will be led by Scotland’s Plant Health Centre (PHC) and will receive £2.2 million of Scottish Government funding over five years, with £470,000 of the funding made available for this year (turn to page 25 for further details). “By working together, we can harness the new technologies, ideas and opportunities to create and deliver solutions.” Prof Lesley Torrance, Executive Director of Science, James Hutton Institute Photo courtesy of James Hutton Institute WWW.AGRIMECH.CO.UK      +44 (0) 1354 638 222 “It’s allowed our business to be flexible and competitive, and we’ve also been able to keep going throughout this pandemic” Jonathan Quail Future proof your company Four years ago farmer Jonathan Quail took his first steps into the world of automation, and by utilising the latest in Agrimech Machinery, his business quickly managed to save over two hours of production time per lorry load.