Agriculture in the 21st century involves much more than planting, harvesting and looking after livestock.
Research has become a key component to success. While much of that work is done by federal and provincial scientists, the practical knowledge of farmers is also a valuable commodity. With funding help from the Prince Edward Island ADAPT Council (which administers the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development Fund in the province), the Farm and Fields Trials Committee, a group of potato growers, conducted a three-year study aimed at controlling soil-borne plant pathogens in potatoes using organic methods.
In May of 1999, two potato fields (one in the Charlottetown area and the other in Cascumpec) were treated with three different organic mixtures -- liquid swine manure, ammonium lignosulfonate (which is derived from pulp and paper products) and Nature Safe 10-2-8 (a fertilizer made primarily with poultry feathers).
During the first year, all three chemicals reduced the incidents of scabs forming on the potato plants. The marketable yield of spuds treated with the Nature Safe fertilizer was 90 per cent, compared to 10 per cent for non-treated sites in both fields. The yield for ammonium lignosulfonate was 60 per cent at one site and 70 per cent at the other. The swine manure produced yields of 20 per cent in one location and 50 per cent at the other.
Another crop was planted in the drought-stricken summer of 2000 with no additional amount of any of the chemicals applied. The yield for the Nature Safe remained higher -- 77 per cent at one site and 49 per cent at the other -- than the non-treated sites. One of the ammonium lignosulfonate sites was higher than non-treated sites and there was no difference between sites treated with swine manure the year before and non-treated plots.
A third crop was planted in 2001, again with no additional applications of any of the three compounds. That result showed virtually no difference in yields within the fields. In addition, there was an increase in the incidents of scabbing in potatoes between areas treated with the three compounds and non-treated fields. Potatoes are considered to be marketable if less than five per cent of the surface is covered with lesions.
The research indicated the income derived from the treated plots, even in the last year, was still greater than for non-treated plots. The study concluded the technology would be economical if the severity of potato scabbing remained low for three years. The committee believes that with further research, a customized combination of organic fertilizers can be developed that will help control pests in the potato crop while posing no threat to the environment.