Rhizo bill on industry tab

25 January 2002




Rhizo bill on industry tab

By Andrew Blake

THE sugar beet industry must pick up the two-year rhizomania containment bill that DEFRA has recently dropped into its lap.

That is initial reaction to the governments failure to fight to extend the UKs protected zone status at an EU plant health meeting last week. The cost could be up to £0.5m a year, estimates British Sugar.

Scientific opinion is that the country will not be able to defend its rhizo-free status for more than two more years. But DEFRAs decision will increase growers vulnerability to so-called "mad beet" disease until a wider choice of resistant varieties is available.

"The great risk is that we still have only one variety which competes with the best conventional types in the absence of rhizomania," says Brooms Barn pathologist Mike Asher. "Within two years we are likely to have at least two more."

With no official anti-rhizo policy, he fears more growers, especially in the most affected areas of Norfolk and Suffolk, will play safe and grow that single variety, Beta Seeds Concept from Nickerson.

"The real concern is that it is still not fully evaluated, and if it turns out to have a weakness, say root cracking or other disease susceptibility, much more of the crop could be affected." The two counties produce about 40% of the crop, he estimates.

Dr Asher says rhizo develops over several rotations, so it is unlikely to rip through the country simply because of DEFRAs decision.

"But I am disappointed that it has not seen fit to support the industry for another two years."

NFU sugar beet chairman Matt Twidale hopes DEFRA may continue to help with monitoring.

"We do not want the disease to spread and spread. We will now have to agree a policy with DEFRA to try to mitigate it."

Norfolk grower Teddy Maufe, whose 100ha (250 acres) of beet are only 18 miles from the nearest rhizo site, says the decision is no surprise. "If DEFRA can offload any costs on to the industry it does so. The big question is what do we do now?

"I believe British Sugar and the NFU need to work out some form of transparent programme to give us another one or two years grace."

Given a voluntary scheme DEFRAs move need not be a disaster, he says. "But whatever is decided it needs only a two-year life span, because growers already with rhizo do not want their farms locked up for ever."

"We need to get together with the NFU to discuss the implications," says BSs John Prince, who acknowledges the lack of a contingency plan. "We felt we had a very good case for the containment policy to continue."

"The industry must accept that DEFRA wants to get out of diseases whether it is rhizomania or foot-and-mouth," says Bram van der Have of Avanta Seeds. The firm has one rhizo-tolerant variety, Rayo, up for UK recommendation next month and may be able to import others when the protected zone status lapses in March, he notes. &#42

RHIZO REALISM

&#8226 Loss of UK PZ status after March.

&#8226 No official containment policy.

&#8226 Voluntary industry scheme mooted.

&#8226 NFU & BS discussions soon.


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