Guinea

In Guinea, in Fouta-Djallon, the potato is a major crop, widely exported across the country. 38,000 farmers, organized under the aegis of the Fouta-Djallon farmers’ federation, live from its production. However, since 2016, they have been confronted during the rainy season to a new disease in the region but well known in Belgium : late blight. The losses caused range from 15 to 100% of the harvest.

This is how the CARAH was approached by COLEACP, as part of a project aimed at strengthening the phytosanitary control and certification system in Guinea. The international agronomy service has trained around twenty technicians from the federation in integrated control of potato late blight. Two weather stations have also been installed in order to set up the beginnings of a warning system, similar to that proposed by CARAH to Walloon farmers (www.vigimap.be).

We wish our colleagues from Fouta-Djallon good success in the fight against potato late blight.