PATAFEST (Potato crop effective management strategies to tackle future pest threats) is a project funded by the European Union with a consortium of 18 partners.
This project is based on the potato and its vulnerability to a variety of pests and soil-borne pathogen diseases. The various risks of these could lead to important economic damages within the potato industry, as well as significant food wastage.
In consequence, the main objectives of PATAFEST are:
- to characterise at molecular level the ecological pest spread pathway and identify potato disease resistance varieties against one of the bacteria, Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (CLso) and postharvest pathogens
- to provide effective preharvest plant and soil treatments against CLso vector and soil-borne pathogens combined with other cutting-edge digital technologies such as image analysis tools (mobile app) and artificial intelligence predictive models
- to develop postharvest technologies (biocontrol coating solution, controlled atmosphere storage and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sensors) to control the incidence of soil pathogens and maintain the quality of potato tubers stored.
ECSA will utilise the citizen science requested in the topic to guarantee that the outcomes are also citizen-generated. ECSA will also develop training initiatives that actively engage citizens at all levels and will use the legacy of EU-Citizen.Science Platform to reinforce and promote the objectives of the PATAFEST project.
