Rise in pests ‘will threaten potato crops’

A PREDICTED rise in pests could cause vast bread and potato shortages and force the nation to change its diet, scientists claim.

According to a study, Britain’s farms could be ‘overwhelmed’ by pests within the next 30 years and the risk to crops has been ‘significantly underestimated’.

One in ten pest types are already present in half the world’s crop-producing countries. However this is set to increase dramatically as a result of climate change and inadequate biosecurity measures meant to protect species from disease.

And researchers at the University of Exeter say the UK is particularly vulnerable.

Professor Sarah Gurr said: ‘The UK has significantly underestimated the scale of the threat... Unless we significantly step up our efforts we could be forced to change our diets in the future.’

Potential threats include fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects, with powdery mildew and leaf blotch posing a danger to wheat. Potatoes are at risk from new variants of Phytophthora infestans – the blight which caused the catastrophic Irish potato famine of the late 1840s.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said they take the issue of biosecurity ‘very seriously’ and have appointed a chief plant health officer to oversee their work.