Top award for Crookwell potatoes At the culmination of last year an award was presented to the Crookwell Potato Association from the Plant Biosecurity Division of the Department of Primary Industries at a dinner held in Orange, NSW. Matthew Gay, President of the Crookwell Association, was in attendance along with his wife, Liz, to proudly accept this award on behalf of the members of the Crookwell Potato Association. The award was for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Plant Biosecurity in New South Wales’, mainly for Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN) testing procedures. This was an inaugural award and a number of guests, including Kim Ritman (Australian Chief Plant Protection Officer) and speakers were involved in the presentation. Satendra Kumar (NSW Chief Plant Protection Officer) introduced the speakers and gave a brief outline of the importance of industry and grower interaction. Guest speaker, Bruce Christie (Executive Director, Biosecurity NSW), then spoke about the role of departmental personnel and the importance of in-field work alongside certified seed growers culminating in awareness and vigilance of any disease threats. Chris Anderson (Plant Product Integrity & Standards Manager), then spoke and presented the award to Matthew. Chris spoke on the history of PCN and the importance of testing. He explained testing techniques and the relevance to under-harvester testing. With coordination of DPI, CPA and grower, Garry Kadwell, the under-harvester testing procedures were trialled and subsequent protocols drawn up. The importance of this, being that the seed lot harvested can be PCN tested instead of the whole paddock. This consignment can then be sold interstate with a PCN Free certificate. This allows the grower flexibility and time for PCN testing to take place and thus reinforces our PCN-free status which Crookwell currently has. Matthew spoke about growers taking on PCN testing with hesitation as Crookwell is a NSW Government proclaimed PCN-free area but with a Quality Assurance Scheme in place which robustly ensures vigilance of disease and pest threats, the growers knew that they had to test. This testing along with leaf virus testing of plants, strict hygiene practices and mandatory crop reporting helps ensure that Crookwell certified seed is among the cleanest and best seed available in Australia, if not the world. Matthew made special mention of Garry Kadwell and his help and availability of his harvester throughout trial periods. Matthew thanks those present for their input into the PCN testing procedure, especially Chris Anderson. Matthew also took the opportunity to thank DPI for helping CPA develop their QA Manual over the last seven years, in particular Paul Anderson, Wayne Haigh and Bev Zurbo. Matthew concluded, once again thanking the DPI Plant Biosecurity team for the Award and the importance of its recognition to CPA. A great night was had by all in attendance.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 23:27:17 +0000
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