The 2025 Fight Against Blight (FAB) campaign in the UK has begun, with a re-designed web page and data management system to make it easier for the dedicated team of growers and agronomists to report late blight. This is according to a news release by The James Hutton Institute, published by the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce.

FAB is sponsored by 19 key companies crucial to the potato industry and was first launched in 2006 to provide scientific support to the UK potato industry.

A nationwide network of agronomists, growers and industry representatives act as scouts, submitting up to 1,500 field samples from suspected late blight outbreaks throughout Britain. A team of pathologists at the James Hutton Institute, home to the National Potato Innovation Centre, identify the pathogen and feed back to the scout within a few days.

This rapid turnaround allows the industry to tailor its management approaches within the 2025 season to the findings of the project.

FAB also provides real-time blight outbreak reporting, a bespoke 7-day forward look at local blight risk and fungicide sensitivity testing on active ingredients prioritised by the industry to tackle blight.

Over 130 people have already registered as Blight Scouts volunteers but it is not too late for others to register by visiting the FAB website, Fight Against Blight | The James Hutton Institute.

Specific challenges for the season ahead for the UK potato industry are flagged within the European industry.  Hutton scientists who, along with European colleagues, are responsible for population tracking in the EuroBlight consortium, have recently reported their findings of the genotyping of nearly 3000 samples collected across Europe in 2024.

Source: The James Hutton Institute | Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce. Read the full and original story here
Related: FRAG-UK potato late blight guidelines (February 2025).pdf
Image: Blight lesions on stems and leaves create infective zoospores as conditions cool. Credit Farmers Guide