THE BRITISH Potato Council has launched its revised blight monitoring website for the 2005 season.

The site, www.potato.org.uk/blight, has several new additions to give growers a better understanding of local blight pressures and allow improved targeting of fungicides, said the BPC.

Key features of the site include maps displaying suspected and confirmed blight incidents – updated twice a day, expert commentary from the Scottish Agricultural College and ADAS, plus text message blight alerts.

Volunteer ‘blight scouts’ across the country report any blight incidence they see and send samples into the BPC to be verified by laboratory testing.

Farmers, agronomists or advisors can become blight scouts and anyone interested should contact the BPC’s agronomist, Mark Prentice at mprentice@potato.org.uk or 0131 472 4149.