Date: Friday, 17th November
Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm, followed by refreshments
Location: Murray Bridge, SA
Registration: Click here to register (Registration is essential for catering)

Join the PotatoLink team for an in-person interactive workshop with international guest, Dr Phillip Wharton, Associate Professor of Potato Pathology at the University of Idaho, USA and Dr Nigel Crump, General Manager for the Australian Seed Potato Authority (AuSPICA), Deputy Chair of the UN Economic Commission specialised seed potatoes section and a Director of the World Potato Congress Inc. Dr Crump has extensive of experience in potato pathology

Topics covered in the workshop:

1. An introduction to PotatoLink

2. Dr Phillip Wharton

   • Black Dot and early death complex research

   • Blackleg and bacterial diseases causing soft rot, stem rot and ring rot

   • Rhizoctonia control in the field and instore

   • Post-harvest tuber disease control

   • Seed emergence and crop efficiency

3. Dr Nigel Crump

   • Update on Potato virus Y (PVY), blackleg and
     Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid (PSTVd) in Australia

   • About the upcoming World Potato Congress (WPC)

You will leave the workshop with:

• A deeper understanding of key disease challenges

• Importance and impact of effective disease management

• A deeper understanding of key seed challenges and opportunities

• Disease identification skills

• Practical strategies that can be applied on your farm

• Tools available for disease testing and available resources

What you need to bring:

• Pen and paper

• Your questions

If you have any questions or queries, please contact Peter on peterkphilp@hotmail.com or 0419 654 245.

Meet the presenters:

• Dr Phillip Wharton

  Dr. Phillip Wharton is currently Associate Professor of potato pathology at the University of Idaho (USA). The University of Idaho is a key hub in US potato research with Idaho producing in 2016, 6.3 million tonnes ($USD 968 million), making up approximately 30% of US’s potato crop.

  In addition to Dr. Wharton’s extensive research experience at Purdue University (USA) and Michigan State University (USA), since 2004 Dr. Wharton has focused his efforts on diseases of potatoes including Rhizoctonia, Fusarium dry rot, late blight and other diseases of potatoes. He has also worked on international potato projects including helping Idaho potato growers increase their exports to Asia (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia etc.) and developing late blight resistant potatoes in Indonesia and Bangladesh. Dr. Wharton’s areas of specialisation include plant pathology, disease forecasting, fungicide resistance, plant disease resistance and the biology of host-pathogens interactions of fungal diseases on potatoes. He has published several papers, which you can read here: https://tinyurl.com/58j2u4xe

• Dr Nigel Crump

  Dr Nigel Crump is a potato pathologist with 19 years’ experience working in the Australian potato industry. Nigel is the General Manager for the Australian Seed Potato Industry Certification Authority (AuSPICA), an industry-based organisation that operates the seed potato certification Scheme in South Australia, Victoria and northern New South Wales.

  Nigel also oversees the day-to-day operation of the Toolangi Elite business which produces G0 potato Mini tubers and tissue culture plantlets.

  Nigel is also deputy chair of the UN Economic Commission specialised section on seed potatoes, and other local industry subcommittees. Recently, Nigel was appointed as a director of the World Potato Congress Inc. Research includes involvement in international projects in Vanuatu, Ethiopia, Indonesia and New Zealand.