Spud growers are invited to join a new association that was established to promote the Scottish seed potato industry in light of the country’s continued exclusion from the EU market.
Founded as a cooperative last year, the Seed Potato Organization (SPO) is “run by seed growers for the benefit of seed growers.”
Joining SPO costs GBP1,000 in front. This is used to create the organization and can later be redeemed, Farming UK wrote. Based on the amount of seed grown, the co-op charges an annual membership fee of GBP29 per hectare.
Scotland sent over 20,000 tonnes of seed potatoes to Europe annually before the UK left the EU, with a value of almost GBP11m. Scotland is the source of more than 75% of Britain’s seed potato exports. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement with Europe, which was announced as part of Brexit at the end of 2020, did not, however, reach an agreement on seed potato equivalence. Scottish growers are bearing the brunt of an issue that is growing more and more political as the UK and the EU continue to disagree on it.
A source: https://www.potatobusiness.com
![HvRLK4 and HvRLK10 can activate the symbiotic pathway in Medicago. (A) Representative bright-field and YFP fluorescence (transformation control) images of Medicago roots expressing RLK4-2xLaG16 and RLK10-GFP depicted to the right. Scale bar = 1 mm. (B) Number of nodules formed on plants expressing the indicated constructs in the absence of rhizobia. Nodules were counted nine weeks after hairy root transformation. Circles represent individual plants. Numbers below the boxplots specify number of nodulated plants out of total number of plants. Lowercase letters indicate significant differences between samples [analysis of variance (Kruskal-Wallis) and post-hoc analysis (Dunn’s test), p < 0.05]. Credit: Science (2023).](https://potatoes.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/novel-strategy-for-eng-75x75.jpg)
