Bacchus Marsh farmers are living in fear of an outbreak of a fungal disease that can ravage entire broccoli and cauliflower fields.
Broccoli grower Maureen Sgarbossa said controlling outbreaks of white blister was a costly and difficult process.
“We’ve been paying a 5.5 per cent levy on every box to the federal government for 15 years, and there’s still no solution,” Mrs Sgarbossa said. “There’s sprays, but you can’t use them more than two or three times in a row because then your boxes are found to contain too-high levels of it.”
Vegetable growers in Werribee South have been hit badly by the disease, which creates white blisters on plants.
Mrs Sgarbossa said farmers, after hearing of cases of white blister being found in the markets, often undertook a cautionary spray, costing about $1235 a fortnight.
‘‘It can take hold overnight,” she said.
National peak body AUSVEG held a field day with growers, researchers and industry representatives earlier this month to assess the problem.
Victorian Vegetable Growers Association president David Wallace said market gardeners were forced to plough affected crops back into soil and start again.
“Affected plants never make it to the supermarket,’’ he said. ‘‘People don’t know that this is hitting farmers, who are already struggling with increasing costs and have to just give up on some crops.”
White blister can be caused by long periods of dampness. It can also be transmitted through infected produce, seedlings or seeds left behind in soil or carried by wind, rain and irrigation splash.
Crop planting and rotation practices can limit the disease.
“[It] just adds to the stress; it happens all year round and seems to come in bursts affecting everyone,” Mr Wallace said.
