Research Projects

Cultivar evaluation and maintenance

To maintain nuclear plants of commercial, open cultivars in vitro.
To carry out trials in production regions to test the adaptability of new cultivars.
To plant trials in a scientific manner to ensure objectivity.
To write reports.
To make the reports available to the industry.

Foliar diseases

Investigation into the Alternaria population causing early blight and brown spot in SA.
To establish baseline information on the tolerance of Alternaria isolates to fungicides used to control early blight and brown spot.

Insect pest management

To determine the risks that Tuta Absoluta holds for potato production.
To investigate aspects of potato leafminer control in the summer and winter rainfall areas.
To establish baseline information on the effectivity of insecticides on Tuta absoluta.

Knowledge transfer

To have information and knowledge available in various formats for different users of information, for example farmers, agriculturalists, researchers, etc.

Potato Nutrition

To do research in controlled environments to determine the effect of soil temperature on Ca uptake and internal quality characteristics.
To evaluate the value of a unique system to do research on the effect of soil temperature on the root environment.

Quality

A rapid method to determine the culinary characteristics of a specific batch of potatoes.
Knowledge of how our climate affects the culinary qualities of locally produced potatoes.
Information on safe and effective postharvest sanitisers.
Identify where weight loss occurred most in the process of harvesting to market.

Nematode management

To evaluate the relative tolerance of cultivars to root-knot nematodes.
To evaluate the effectiveness of “softer” nematicides, rotation programmes, cover crops, etc. to manage nematodes.
To determine how different crops used in rotation programmes in the Eastern Free State affect the nematode population.

Soil-borne diseases

To determine effectivity of registered plant protection products for the control of some diseases.
To determine the survival ability of R. solanacearum in local soils.
To test methods to sanitise implements.
To develop management strategies for Verticillium.
To determine which pathogens are the main causal agents for soft rot and black stem in SA and to determine whether the population has changed since 2010.

Soil health and conservation

To carry out long term projects in different production regions.
To observe effects such as tillage, cover crops, rotation crops etc. on soil microbes, soil physical and chemical properties, yield and quality.

Virus and aphid management

To maintain a long term database to determine changes in aphid flight and abundance as affected by climate, alternative host plants, etc.
To monitor seasonable aphid flights.
To determine how climate and climate change may change the flight pattern, species composition and abundance by using long term data.
To be able to determine the source of virus in a production region.

Volunteer potato control

Various registered (on maize) herbicides will be evaluated singly or in combination for the control of volunteer plants.
Initial trials will be carried out in the glasshouse.
The recommendations that emanate from the glasshouse trials will be tested in the field before final recommendations will be made.

Water use and quality

To undertake long-term monitoring of sensitive soil water resources in the Sandveld.
To see that information is available to farmers.
To measure leaching of water and nitrogen in irrigated fields in North West and the Sandveld to provide a base to improve efficiency.

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