NZ: Kiwifruit growers now need to detail PSA-V management
Almost three years after the disease was discovered in a Te Puke orchard, more than 2,000 kiwifruit orchards have now been identified as having PSA. The grower body set up to deal with PSA, Kiwifruit Vine Health (KVH), says it will be following up with growers who don't have a complete orchard management plan.
A Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower says the new requirement to have in place a plan detailing how growers are managing the vine killing disease PSA-V is worthwhile, despite criticism from at least one other grower that it seems a bit pointless.
KVH chief executive Barry O'Neill says the new requirement represents the best plan they could come up with so far. He says the plan enables the approach to be modified each year as better ways of controlling and overcoming the impacts of PSA are developed. "It's a plan that has been developed by growers, with growers, for growers, as well as the best science that we could identify at the time."
Mr O'Neill says a survey on the plan found 70% support for it among growers.
Source: Radio New Zealand News
