Psyllid outbreak forcing WA potato farmers out of the industry
The seed potato grower will know in the next six weeks whether his lifelong career will continue.
"[Farming] is something that we've done not just because I wanted to but because I get a reward for it, financially and personally," he said. [This] may be the last crop we grow here."
Usually at this time of year, Mr Parker's farm would be busy and in the middle of harvesting his most valuable crop of third-year seed potatoes to send to South Australia.
But this year, due to the tomato potato psyllid outbreak in Western Australia, which has resulted in strict interstate trade restrictions, he has had to make the tough decision not to harvest them. It is a decision that will likely cost him dearly.
With two weeks until he completely loses the market for his $300,000 crop from this year into South Australia, Mr Parker has made a desperate plea to government authorities to help him and other producers.
"I would hope [WA Minister for Agriculture] Alannah MacTiernan could see some light at the end of the tunnel and go and bat for us or some Federal Minister, like Barnaby Joyce, could realise the urgency of this situation," he said.
WA's largest seed potato producer Colin Ayres said even if interstate trade was to resume, the change of Zebra Chip, the crop-destroying bacteria associated with the psyllid, being found in WA would make interstate buyers reluctant to buy off WA into the future in case trade restrictions should be reinstated.
source: abc.net.au
