§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what contingency plans she has for(a) a rhizomania epidemic in sugar beet crops and (b) potato brown rot. [8293]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 18 October 2001]: The Department has written contingency plans against outbreaks of a number of serious plant pests and diseases, including rhizomania of sugar beet and potato brown rot.
Statutory measures have been taken against rhizomania since the first UK finding in 1987, to slow the spread of the disease until such time as high-yielding disease tolerant varieties became available to UK farmers. Action has been taken against a further 210 outbreaks discovered during annual official surveys, including 68 so far this year. Disease tolerant varieties are now available and we will be consulting shortly on the future of the containment policy and the UK's "protected zone" status within the EC. This status imposes precautionary measures on the movement of certain commodities from other countries where rhizomania is already widely established.
Our contingency plans for outbreaks of potato brown rot reflect the measures set out in EC Directive 98/57 which are aimed at eradication and containment of that disease. Over the last three years we have co-ordinated an exercise to eradicate the bacterium which causes brown rot from a number of river systems in east Anglia and one in Kent. We are currently evaluating the results of that exercise.