Specialty crop clean plant centers—Managing plant health through pathogen screening and distribution of plant materials
D. GOLINO (1). (1) Department of Plant Pathology & Foundation Plant Services, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A.
Clean plant centers for specialty crops exist around the world with the mission of screening plants for economically significant pathogens, performing therapy for those pathogens as needed, and maintaining collections of each crop which are available to commercial nurseries for propagation and eventual sale to growers. This strategy is invaluable in improving the health of crops like grapes, citrus, berries, hops, sweet potatoes, roses and many others. In recent decades as Experiment Station budgets have declined, funding for these centers became increasingly scarce. Fortunately, the 2008 Farm Bill dramatically changed this situation by funding a National Clean Plant Network. The NCPN has served not only to fund clean plant centers throughout the United States but also to create an expert network of the scientists who manage these programs. Similar techniques are used throughout the network to avoid introduction of pests and diseases, to detect pathogens in new accessions, to perform therapy to eliminate pathogens, and to maintain and distribute propagating material.
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