The first symposium of the Western-Cape branch of the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology (SASPP) was held on Thursday, 8 May 2008, at the Infruitec-campus of ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij in Stellenbosch.  During the symposium, twenty-three speakers discussed the future of fungicides as well as alternative ways of plant disease control, pathogen identification and detection, plant improvement and the managment of post-harvest diseases to reduce the spoilage of harvested crops. 

The symposium was attended by 124 delegates from a number of agricultural sectors, among which were universities in the Western Cape, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Department of Agriculture, chemical companies, plant improvement centres as well as producers. The aim of the symposium was to facilitate better interaction between industries and the respective research institutes. 

Dr. Karin Jacobs (University of Stellenbosch), president of the SASPP, opened the symposium with a short introduction on the role of the SASPP.  She emphasised that “the society should act as a discussion forum for its members and that the symposium should be seen as an opportunity to exhange information.”
The keynote speaker of the day was Prof. Bill Fry of Cornell University in the U.S.A. who is currently on a sabbatical visit in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Stellenbosch. He discussed the link between basic plant pathology research and plant disease management.  His emphasised that the academic studies at  Universities are often the precursers to developments in technologies which are later applied in the field to protect plants against diseases. He further stressed that it is important that new innovative ways of plant disease management should be regularly researched.

There was keen interest in the session dealing with the future of fungicide control.   Mr. Petrie de Kock (Bayer CropScience) discussed the importance and scope of crop production in the Western Cape.  Currently, R179 million are annually spend on fungicides on grain crops, potatoes, stone and pome fruits as well as grapes in the Western Cape.  Mr. André Erasmus (BASF) explained the process of the development of new fungicides.  Only one out of every one-hundred-thousend molecules that are found are further developed. This process can take up to 10 years with a cost of about €200 million to develop and register the product.   According to Mr. Rupert Anelich (Syngenta) it is of utmost importance that fungicides are treated with the necessary care and consideration, as fungi can develop resistance against these chemicals.  Correct application of fungicides have a direct influence on their efficacy.   The research results of Dr. Paul Fourie (Citrus Research International) on grapevines showed in general that the fungicide application at lower volumes but higher concentration can lead to better coverage of the leaf surface and thus better disease control.  As much as 25% can be saved on mechanisation costs.  Mr. Pieter le Roux (Villa Crop Protection) discussed the future of generic fungicides.  The sales of the generic crop protectants increased from  10% in 1995 to 30% of the total market in 2006. Abstracts of the different talks can be accessed here.

The day was sponsored by chemical companies such as BASF, Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, Villa Crop Protection, and Du Pont, as well as laboratory suppliers’ Kapa Biosystems, Laboratory Specialist Services and Celtic Molecular Diagnostics.  The facilities were sponsored by the ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, and Perdeberg Wine cellar sponsored all the wine for the function.  The symposium ended with a spitbraai and all delegates agreed that the aim to create a network opportunity and technology transfer between industry and the members of the SASPP was successful.