Take strawberries directly to the doctor, free of charge! The Miao reform farm pioneered the molecular detection technology of anthracnose, and farmers sent pieces free of charge.

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China's first strawberry anthracnose molecular detection technology! Once strawberry seedlings are infected with anthracnose, it is easy to die, and it is difficult to judge whether they are healthy or not by their appearance alone. Farmers often transplant to the field before a large-scale anthracnose infection occurs, resulting in heavy losses. According to the estimation of the Agricultural improvement Farm of Miaoli District of the Council of Agriculture, about 5 million strawberry seedlings are lost due to anthracnose every year. Based on 10 yuan per seedling, the cost of raising seedlings alone is 50 million yuan a year.

It took three years to develop a molecular detection technique for anthrax-nested polymerase chain reaction primer pairs. Farmers only need to send samples of strawberry seedlings and obtain a genetic primer through molecular detection technology. you can tell if you're infected with anthrax. The testing time of the technology is only two days, and the farmers do not have to bear any cost, which is all absorbed by the seedlings.

Farmers leave strawberries in the fields to propagate (Photo / Liu Yixin)

Clean seed collection is the best way.

However, Zhong Jianzhe also says that the best situation should be that farmers have a clean and managed place as a source of seed collection, and they do not want to change the mother plant every year. It is better to establish a clean source of seed collection by means of production and marketing classes and nursery grounds. So far, 870 samples have been tested, including samples from nursery farms and farmers. However, because this technology is more sensitive, anthrax can be detected when the symptoms are not visible to the naked eye, and farmers will still psychologically want to continue to plant the seedlings. "it is suggested that farmers should at least detect the infected seedlings and plant them in isolation to see if there is a problem."

Zhong explains that after unhealthy seedlings are planted, they will no longer be infected with anthracnose. Strawberries are easily infected with anthracnose as long as they are hot and humid, but early-stage healthy seedlings can reduce the probability of infection. Can this technology be applied to other crops in the future? Zhong said that there are many kinds of anthrax, including four kinds of strawberry anthracnose, and will consider continuing to develop molecular detection techniques for anthracnose in red dates in the future.

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