When you want a healthy potato harvest, you need the Corteva Agriscience product, Zorvec® Encantia®. Zorvec® Encantia® is a revolutionary fungicide designed to specifically target late blight, a pathogen compromising potato growth.
Corteva Agriscience value the fact that South Africa’s potato industry contributes significant nutritional and economic value with an average of 51 000 ha being planted per year. Additionally, close to 66% of all potatoes purchased at local fresh produce markets are bought by informal traders, further driving job creation opportunities.
André (Boetie) van Zyl, Farm Manager at Koopfontein Farm, Lambertsbaai, in the heart of the Sandveld, grows potatoes and vegetables. “The biggest challenges in the potato industry are the high input costs, loadshedding during summer months and potato pests and diseases such as leaf miner and late blight,” he says.
It is very humid in the Western Cape and that is why late blight is a problem. “We spend a lot of money on it every year and try to use the latest chemistry on the market to combat it,” André explains.
He has been using Zorvec® Encantia® for a year now in a programme with four other classes of fungicides. “It is a big success, and this is the road to follow in the future with the type of weather we have.”
André is passionate about farming and sees it as his hobby. “I do not catch fish, I do not ride horses, I farm with potatoes and vegetables and that is my hobby.”
Farmers in the Western Cape harvest healthier potatoes because they spray Zorvec®.
Pieter Saaiman, Crop Solutions Expert for InteliGro for twenty years, says the sea is near the farm and that is why the pressure is high and farmers struggle with late blight. “Sometimes the potatoes emerge from the soil with late blight, but we follow a strict management strategy. We alternate different product classes, and since we have been using Zorvec® Encantia® in week 6 and 7 (a maximum of two applications in the programme) we did not have late blight again.”
“Zorvec® Encantia® is an essential product for us, and as not many new pesticides are registered, we need to protect it.”
“In the past, the field lifetime of potatoes was around 13 to 14 weeks. With Zorvec® Encantia® we observe a longer lifetime of 16 to 17 weeks,” Pieter added.
The potatoes are healthy when they are free of late blight. Late blight is a devastating disease that can destroy a potato field in three, four days.
Other challenges that potato farmers face, are potato tuber moth and Tuta absoluta.
“Corteva provides excellent support, and it is one of the few companies that brings new products to the table,” Pieter added.
Pieter says that they get feedback within a day or two from Corteva. “That is what I like. Their people go the extra mile for you and the industry, especially in the potato industry because of their strong potato portfolio.”
Zorvec® Encantia® has the advantage that it is absorbed into the plant quickly. This accommodates the fact that farmers irrigate daily by pivot, up to 12 mm in 20 min.
There is nothing as satisfying for a farmer than to harvest a large, healthy potato, and it is possible with Zorvec.
Petrus van Zyl, Farm Manager for the farm Wadrif, works for the Zandveld potato group and grows approximately 63 hectares of potatoes.
“We started with Zorvec® Encantia® two years ago and it has been a great success. We do not have late blight problems anymore and the potato plants last longer in the field.
“Late blight is a big problem for us in this area, and it can cause great damage. We talk about vast amounts of money that can be lost, therefore the disease needs to be managed well,” says Petrus. They alternate between Zorvec® Encantia® and other products, because they manage potential development of pathogen resistance.
Petrus says the strategy that they follow at the moment works well: “We apply Zorvec two times per season, in week 6 and 7.
“My crop advisor goes through the field with me to see where we must spray and where not, because you must spray preventatively, and with today’s technology you can see what the weather will be like. It determines how, when, what and where we spray. “
Healthy potatoes from the field are possible by fighting the late blight disease with Zorvec from Corteva Agriscience.
Petrus says they plant a circle of potatoes once every four years and let the land rest for three years. “The soil rests because soil that rested produce a good harvest. One year we plough it, and then nature must follow its course. It is important to preserve land for future generations.
“The four-year production cycle in potatoes is better to combat diseases, and to get a higher yield,” Pieter adds.
With the high input costs of potato production, one has to attain high yields, and Corteva contributes to that, not only with the Zorvec® Encantia® product.
Henry Odendaal from InteliGro also says that late blight is a big problem in the Sandveld area due to the high humidity.
“Especially after flowering stage and during its most vigorous vegetative growth late blight may cause problems. We applied Zorvec® Encantia® on irrigation potatoes and have good results. It gives me peace of mind to know the plant is healthy. It is not negotiable; one must have the product.”
Gustav Groenewald, Marketing Manager from Corteva Agriscience, mentions that, as it rains regularly in winter months, application can be challenging: however, Zorvec® Encantia® provides peace of mind with rain fastness achieved within 20 minutes.
The Corteva team: Christo Eksteen, Thomas Platt and Gustav Groenewald in a potato field in the Swartland.
Thomas Platt, Customer Technical Specialist from Corteva Agriscience says they did various trials in the area. “Zorvec® Encantia® has good efficacy against the disease and protects new growth. The potato plants are green and big because it is a healthier plant and the quality of the tubers are better.
Christo Eksteen, Technical Sales Representative of Corteva Agriscience, says they only hear good feedback on Zorvec.
“This product adds value to production. Zorvec is definitely a product that you should consider when you want to have a successful harvest.”
Advantages of Zorvec® Encantia®
- Used as a foliar application on potatoes at very low dose rates per hectare
- Produces multiple effects on a pathogen’s lifecycle.
- Protects leaves as they grow and expand and enhances the protection of new foliage.
- Fast absorption allows for high tolerance to wash-off, rain and irrigation.
- Proven to be highly effective with no harmful effects on beneficial species when used according to the label.
To find out more about Zorvec® Encantia®, visit Corteva Agriscience at www.corteva.co.za.
