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The World Potato Congress is extremely pleased to be offering its third webinar in 2020 featuring Dr. Leah Tsror.

Powdery scab causes significant economic damage in potato production worldwide due to reduced quality and marketability of seed and ware tubers. Disease development depends on a range of factors, including inoculum levels in soil and in seed tubers, cultivar susceptibility and climatic conditions.

The focus will be on the epidemiology of the disease and the integrated management practices for reducing the risk of powdery scab.

The presentation will discuss epidemiological aspects, e.g., the role of alternative hosts, wind-driven inoculum, latent seed infection, and environmental conditions. It will also discuss IPM approaches, preventive measures, e.g., using tolerant cultivars, soil and seed testing; cultural sustainable approaches, e.g., selecting the planting date, applying non-woven fabric on the foliage for increasing soil temperature; chemical control, e.g. soil fumigation, and pre-planting fungicide application.

The integration of agro-techniques and control measures is likely to be an effective way for growers to reduce the impact of the disease.

Presenter – Dr. Leah Tsror

Leah Tsror is a Research Group Leader in the Department of Plant Pathology, Agricultural Research Organization, Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her Master’s and PhD from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Her Post-doctoral research was conducted at Reading University, UK. Dr. Tsror served as the President of the Israeli Phytopathology Society (2004-05) and she was the Director of the Gilat Research Center, ARO (2008-13). Dr. Tsror has been the Chairperson of the Pathology & Pests Section of the European Association of Potato Research (EAPR) and a member of the EAPR Council (2013- to date).  Her research interests include epidemiology and management of potato diseases, populations of soil-borne pathogens and host-pathogen interactions. In addition to research, Dr. Tsror is the Director of the Plant Disease Diagnostics Lab, which provides diagnostic services to growers. Current research projects are Powdery Scab, Blackleg and Soft rots, Potato Early Dying and Berticillium wilt on fruit trees.

Dr. Tsror has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications and she is on the editorial boards of Potato Research and Phytoparasitica (both published by Springer).

The host for the webinar series will be WPC Director, Dr. Nora Olsen (norao@uidaho.edu). To register in advance for this webinar on March 18, 2020 at 09:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time go to:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hMpnZHOhSyaMOCsVVsJ7bg. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

WPC Inc. looks forward to interacting with you during this initiative. We welcome all your feedback via email: info@potatocongress.org.