The project 'Studies on the new Nordic populations of Phytophthora infestans to improve potato late blight forecasting and control' was approved by the NKJ (The Nordic Joint Committee for Agricultural Research). Scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (DIAS), The Norwegian Crop Research institute (NCRI) and the Agricultural Research Centre of Finland (MTT) will participate. The objective of the project is to evaluate and quantify epidemiological parameters of the "new" population(s) of  P. infestans in the Nordic countries. The results will be implemented in existing and new forecasting and decision support systems (DSS) for late blight control.

During the project a common framework for development of a core Internet-based late blight DSS will be developed. This framework will insure that future development of late blight DSS applications and components can be exchanged between partner countries. The funding for the project will be provided by NKJ and the governments of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland and the project will have close ties with the EUCABLIGHT Network (See GILB Newsletter No.16, May 2002). The project will cover the period 2003-2006. Contact person is Jonathan Yuen: jonathan.yuen(at)evp.slu.se. The GILB Steering Committee is extremely pleased to have endorsed this important effort toward late blight control.