Control of Potato Cyst Nematodes: Consultation on the Implementation in Scotland of Directive 2007/33/EC

2. Contents of the 2007 Directive

Sampling rate

9. A key aim of the new Directive was to produce a harmonised approach to testing for PCN, in particular that the sampling rate for official pre-crop soil testing should be the same across the EU. A single standard sampling rate is therefore imposed. A lower rate is set for land where no potatoes have been grown in the previous six years, or where previous official tests have found the land to be free of PCN. Both the standard and the lower rate may be reduced for larger fields, which helps to offset the higher probability of detecting PCN when larger fields are tested.

10. Member States have freedom to define a "field", which is the area from which a single soil sample will be drawn and tested, and to which the consequences of the results of the test will be applied. Although larger "fields" can be sampled at reduced rates, the consequences of finding PCN are greater in terms of the area of land that would then be designated as contaminated and subjected to control measures.

11. Details of the standard sampling rates and the implications for PCN testing in Scotland are discussed in section 3, together with options for the definition of a field and related issues.

Farm saved seed

12. Unlike the 1969 Directive, the 2007 Directive does not discriminate between seed potatoes "intended for marketing" and others. For the purposes of the 2007 Directive all potatoes that are planted are viewed as "seed potatoes". All seed potatoes must be produced on land which has been found clear of PCN by a pre-planting soil test, unless they are to be used "within the same place of production situated in an officially defined area". This measure recognises that all movement of seed potatoes, including those saved from unclassified crops ("farm saved seed") poses the same risk of spreading PCN, and there is little point imposing controls on classified seed if farm saved seed can be moved without restriction. There is some scope for local interpretation of the area within which untested farm saved seed can be used; options are discussed in section 4.

Land infested with PCN

13. If official testing finds PCN in a field, the field must be recorded as infested and the following restrictions will apply:

• No seed potatoes may be grown in the field;
• Ware potatoes may be grown, provided that an officially approved control programme is used, aiming at least at the suppression of PCN (control programmes are discussed in section 6);
• Ware potatoes which have been grown or stored in an infested field, or which have come into contact with infested soil, must be graded and processed at a plant with appropriate waste disposal facilities which pose no risk of spreading PCN. They must not be planted in any circumstances. Disposal of contaminated waste is discussed in section 7.

Implementation of the new soil sampling rates will mean that it is no longer necessary to place restrictions on buffer zones around the area in which PCN is found - please see section 5 for details.