By Trudy Kelly Forsythe
Horticulture Nova Scotia has released a recovery strategy to assist the province's strawberry growers with an aphid-spread virus.
Nova Scotia growers removed over 200 acres of strawberry plants before harvest this year in an attempt to fight the disease.
On Aug. 7, the organization hosted a videoconference session at five locations around the province to explain the strategy to growers.
Developed by Dr. Robert Martin, a virologist from Oregon, in consultation with John Lewis, a berry specialist with Perennia, and a group of industry producers and leaders, the strategy reveals that the only way to completely eradicate the virus from berry fields is to remove the plants and wait at least three weeks before replanting.
"That being said," says Donna Crawford, administrative co-ordinator with Horticulture Nova Scotia, "there is still the threat from wild strawberries and berry patches in home gardens, neither of which have been addressed as yet."
Crawford adds that next steps depend on whether industry can access funding to act as an incentive to producers to take out their infected crops.
"To some it would mean total loss of income and that is a hard decision to make," she says. "I think everyone understands the gravity of the situation, but may not be in a financial position to carry things through."
The Nova Scotia government did announce some support to growers to help cover the cost of replanting their crops. The new provincial funding, announced by Agriculture Minister John MacDonell, allows growers to remove infected fields and replant with the support of interest-free loans. Repayment of the loans is only required after the crop is harvested.
MacDonell said in a news release about the announcement that the provincial funding allows them to leverage an existing federal program to ensure the entire loan for replanting is interest-free. The release said, "Between the interest-free loan program and the other three existing federal-provincial business risk management programs, strawberry farmers will be able to access about $2 million in assistance."
The industry would like to see more to encourage the removal of infected plants.
"What will speed it up is a level of assistance that will encourage berry growers to remove the infected acres even if it reduces their income potential for the following year," wrote Greg Webster, a grower member of Horticulture Nova Scotia's Ad Hoc Strawberry Virus Committee, in response to the release.
Crawford says industry also needs funding to continue virus testing during the fall aphid flight and for next spring.
Source: FCC