May be time to retire fields with potato wart: MLA

It's time to have a serious discussion about permanently retiring fields infected with potato wart, Liberal MLA Robert Henderson says.

His comments came after two experts from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) told a legislative committee on Thursday that the current management plan will not eradicate the disease but just keep it under control.

The CFIA in November put a ban on exporting P.E.I. potatoes to the United States after potato wart was found in two fields. The ban was lifted last week, but not before farmers lost significant revenue and were forced to destroy much of their crop.

Henderson, a former potato farmer who represents the provincial riding of O'Leary-Inverness, said more needs to be done to avoid border closures in the future.

"I guess I would be advocating to say that maybe we need to rethink this and try to determine what's the amount of risk that Island potato growers are willing to take in this province," he said.

"I've asked questions in the legislature regarding taking those fields out of agricultural production."

About 607 hectares

The land in question amounts to about 607 hectares that could be used for other purposes, such as forestry, Henderson said. He also suggested adding restrictive covenants on the property deeds for farm land that contains potato wart.

David Bailey, chief plant health officer of Canada, noted downsides to Henderson's recommendation.

"I think from a grower's perspective, they lose productive land and the future earnings from that land, so there are many factors to be considered here, not just the taking of something out of production."

A committee of MLAs has begun working on recommendations to take to the legislature.