ISHS Acta Horticulturae 94: XI International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases
OPENING ADDRESS |
| Authors: | I. KOVÁCS, J. VÁNCSA, R.H. KRISTENSEN, G. MATHYS, A.F. POSNETTE, A.F. MURANT |
| Abstract:
Ladies and Gentlemen! I should like to greet you in the name of the Organizing Committee of both Symposia on the occasion of the beginning of the XIth International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases and the IInd International Symposium on Small Fruit Virus Diseases. I am glad to welcome among us Mr. Jenö Váncsa, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food; Dr. MATHYS, Director-General of the EPPO, Vice-Chairman of the ISHS Plant Protection Commission; Dr. KRISTENSEN, President of the ISHS Plant Protection Commission; Dr. POSNETTE, President of the International Committee for Cooperation on Fruit Tree Virus Research; Dr. MURANT, President of the ISHS Working Group on Small Fruit Virus Diseases; Dr.
BÁLINT NAGY, Head of the Plant Protection and Agrochemistry Department, The Hungarian Plant Protection Service is very much honoured that this important event takes place in our institute, in the Plant Protection Centre. Our institute was established in 1976 by a Government decision, in order to fulfil very effectively the plant protection and soil management activity. The task of our institute is to manage the plant protection and agrochemical activity, to develop technologies in both fields, to promote use of modern equipments and to regulate the products in use. Activity of the Hungarian plant protection goes back for at least 25 years. I do hope we will find time to show you our results. In the institute and in the national service of the so-called special laboratories particular attention is paid to the section dealing with fruit tree virus diseases, as well as to the Laboratory of Plant Virology and the Indexing Site. These two are under the supervision of our Centre. Though the staff of this special section is not numerous, it achieved important results in the field of the production of virus-free propagating material and in the diagnostics of virus diseases because we have very good collaboration with the research institutes and with other state organisations. Our main aim is to establish in the very near future virus-free plantations and at the same time a continuous increase of the yields. After this very brief summary of our basic duty, you may understand that we are expecting much help from successful work of the Symposia. So let me welcome you again in Budapest, in the capital of our country. As far as we are concerned in the arrangement of the Symposia our aim was to ensure the best possible condition for your work, and we do hope that you will have a good time with us. When drawing up the programmes of the meeting and excursions we should have liked to give you opportunity to get acquainted with the hospitality of the Hungarians and with some parts of Hungary. We wish you, experts of 24 nations, fruitful work and new scientific results and successes in your field. With these thoughts I open the XIth International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases and the IInd International Symposium on Small Fruit Virus Diseases and I call upon Mr.
Vánesa, Deputy Minister, to address the Symposia. I have the honour to greet you on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Hungarian People's Republic on the occasion of opening the XIth International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases, and the IInd International Symposium on Small Fruit Virus Diseases. It is an honour for us that these important international symposia take place in Hungary upon the request of the International Committee for Cooperation on Fruit Tree Virus Research and the Working Group on Small Fruit Virus Diseases of the International Society of Horticultural Sciences. I think that beside the scientific work on the panels and in the sessions, you will also have the opportunity to see some practical aspects of our agriculture, namely the state of fruit-growing, the work on production of virus-free propagating material and the results already achieved. Allow me to offer a brief survey of the situation of agriculture in Hungary and the tasks of technical development. In recent years the problem of food production has become the centre of public interest all over the world. To supply food for the people of the world requires great efforts and responsibilities for the people working in agriculture. The increased and increasing demand for food, as well as the realization of our potential, urged us to improve food production. The peculiar feature of the development of our economy is that agriculture serves as an important counterpart of imported raw materials and other products. For more than two decades our agrarian and cooperative policy successfully served the socialist development of our society. During this period great social and economic changes took place in agriculture. The socialist agriculture and the development of agrarian conditions significantly contributed to the improvement of the financial position and the enhancement of knowledge and raising the living standard in Hungary. The natural environment in our country allows the economical production of practically all cultivated plants with the exception of a few seasoning plants and the tropical fruits. Nearly 75% of the country can be cultivated or utilized agriculturally. It is our national treasure and we shall rely on it. Radical changes have taken place in our food production in the last 10 years: Agricultural production became industrialized, the production has been integrated, the proportion of live labour decreased, the effectiveness of production increased and the socialist large-scale agricultural production stabilized. Extensive reserves of economic development are becoming exhausted thus they are gradually being replaced by the development of intensive production based on high level professional skill. Now, I would like to demonstrate our results with some figures. First of all a few words about the acceleration of the rate of agricultural production:
It has also been possible to increase the food industrial production by more than 5% per year. The participation of the food industry in the national income varies between 16–19%, according to its volume. The export of agricultural and food industrial products increased by more than five times during the last 15 years. In recent years the agricultural production was greatly intensified. Beside the production, the cultivated areas were also significantly concentrated. In Hungary there are 124 state farms and 1436 agricultural cooperative farms. The average size of the state farms is above 8000 hectares and that of the cooperative farms around 4200 hectares. Additionally the household and auxiliary farms are of great importance. Big successes were gained in cereal production — the yield of wheat is above 42 metric centner pro hectare and that of corn is 51–52 metric centner pro hectare. In our economy horticultural production plays a significant part — first of all the vegetable and fruit-growing, but the vine production is also important, especially on the international market. Our poultry production is considerable in the international trade also. The technical level of the agricultural production is satisfactory, and we endeavour to apply not only the results of other socialist countries but also that of the Western-European countries, having developed an agricultural machinery industry. It makes possible the harvesting of more than 1.5 million hectares cereal within 10–12 days. One of the main tasks of the Hungarian food production is to satisfy entirely the requirements of the country. Apart from this, as you know we also export food in significant quantities. In addition to our traditional international partners the number of other countries we trade with is increasing, and thus above our own economic interests we contribute — even if modestly — to satisfying the food requirements of the world. The production of each fourth—fifth hectare goes to the international market. Our aim is to satisfy the qualitative requirements of both the domestic and foreign markets. As a consequence of the further concentration and specialization of the agricultural production, the plant protection and soil conservation play important roles in the agricultural processes. We can say, without being self-satisfied, that we have an internationally known, well-organized and established system of plant protection and agrochemistry. We have 3500 highly specialized engineers of plant protection, 27,000 skilled and semi-skilled plant protection workers, and 12,000 plant protection machines to help our work. In the last few decades among the plant pathological problems the virus diseases have been emphasized; therefore to have virus-free propagating material is considered by the developed fruit- and grapevine growing states to be one of the important factors to increase the efficiency of plantations. The tasks for producing virus-free fruit tree and other propagating material were determined by the 1977 program of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food on the basis of the earlier scientific and practical experiences, and its realization in due time is regarded as an outstanding duty. It is expected of this conference
Honoured Symposium, Ladies and Gentlemen, at the end I wish you success in your work in these symposia which
Once again I welcome all of you and we are hoping our foreign guests will enjoy the Hungarian hospitality.
I wish you success in your work at the Symposia. It is a great pleasure for me on behalf of The International Society for Horticultural Science and its Plant Protection Commission to bring you all the most sincere greetings and best wishes for the XIth International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases as well as for the IInd International Symposium on Small Fruit Virus Diseases, which will now take place here in the beautiful city of Budapest. The International Society for Horticultural Science is a world-covering organization, who try to deal with all aspects of horticultural sciences. As plant diseases and pests play a very important role in the production of horticultural crops, the society a few years after its foundation decided to establish a Plant Protection Commission, to secure that plant protection could be an integral part of the work carried out by the society. The main object of the plant protection commission is to encourage international cooperation regarding research concerning and measures against plant diseases and pests in horticultural plants. In order to accomplish this important task in the best possible way, several working groups have been established. Among these groups are some very active ones, dealing with plant virus diseases. The oldest one is the group dealing with fruit tree virus diseases, which came into being in Switzerland, who hosted the first symposium, held in 1954. In the years since then, nine other successful symposia have been arranged: in the Netherlands, in UK, in Denmark, in Italy, in Yugoslavia, in GDR, in France and again (for a second time) in UK and then finally in the Federal Republic of Germany. At the XIth symposium here in Budapest we can actually celebrate an anniversary, as 25 years have elapsed since the first symposium took place in Switzerland. The working group on small fruit virus diseases is comparatively young. The group arranged its first symposium — an excellent one — in Heidelberg in 1976, and is now having its second symposium, which undoubtedly will be equally successful. I am not aware, how many of you have visited Hungary in the past, but I myself have had the privilege of being here twice before, and from my experiences, I can assure you that you have something to look forward to. No doubt all scientists, who are dealing with plant virus diseases known about the advanced and excellent work, which have been and still are being performed in this country. Much of this work have been made available to us by beautiful printed publications, such as Acta Phytopathologia. However interesting it is to read about your work, it is even more exciting to come and see for yourselves and to be able to carry out fruitful discussions with our Hungarian colleagues in the frame of these symposia. I wish to conclude my greetings to you by expressing my sincere gratitude to our Hungarian hosts for their willingness to organize these two symposia — and finally express my best wishes for some successful meetings during the coming days. It is my privilege and honour to address this distinguished audience and to express great appreciation for the invitation extended to the ISHS which is thus in the fortunate situation of holding two important meetings in this most hospitable country. The idea of suggesting Budapest as a meeting place came from Professor Posnette and some other prominent researchers; it shows the high esteem in which Hungarian research on virus and virus-like agents is held. Hungary has thus become the cross-road for virologists from all parts of the world. Professor POSNETTE, Director of the East Malling Research Station is chairman of the ISHS Group on fruit tree viruses and Dr MURANT from Dundee/Scotland is chairman of the small fruit virus group. The two Groups which are meeting here belong to the ISHS Plant Commission which includes a total of 8 Groups, each of which is involved in a specific phytopathological research, mostly at the crop level. You know that Dr. RONDE KRISTENSEN (DK) is President of this Commission and that I am in charge of the Secretariat. Since I am also in charge of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO), the regional intergovernmental organization connecting 35 countries and being mainly involved in regulatory-administrative work such as quarantine, establishing guidelines on the biological evaluation of pesticides, establishing fumigation and ULV standards, I should like to stress the considerable interest EPPO has in the research performed by the 2 Virus Groups of ISHS. Many viruses, mycoplasms and other virus-like agents are indeed of great economic importance and should not be disseminated within countries and across boundaries, they have accordingly to be included in quarantine regulations. EPPO is advising its Members on the species to be retained and such decisions are made on the grounds of scientific evidence. In this context, identification, certification, symptomatology and control are important components which are carefully studied by EPPO expert groups aiming at establishing internationally acceptable standards. You readily understand that this type of technology transfer has a great importance and avoids that research findings remain neglected like individual bricks instead of being used to set up a building. EPPO is therefore looking forward to taking advantage of research results which will be discussed during the course of the 2 symposia. This exchange of views at the highest research level will be greatly facilitated by the solid logistic support offered by our Hungarian colleagues and friends. Personally I had already several opportunities of studying the plant protection systems and the way in which research is performed in this country. It occurred to me that the Hungarian approach towards crop production optimization can be considered as a model. Dr B. NAGY has largely contributed to these developments. The protection technology is rightly considered here as an essential component in the production process and great care has been given in establishing a dense network of 20 plant protection institutes, computerized warning systems and a well-developed research organization. I am also impressed by the way in which the pesticide residue problems have been solved through appropriate action as well as information and technology transfer. These meetings start under the high sponsorship of his Excellency the Minister of Agriculture and I know that every success is to be expected from the fine preparation secured by our Hungarian friends.
Einstein said: “One thing I have learned in a long life is that all our science measured against reality is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have”. With this thought in mind I wish all the participants pleasant and rewarding days. Mr. President, Dr. KOVÁCS, Dr. NAGY and colleagues — on behalf of the International Committee for Cooperation in Fruit Tree Virus Research I welcome you to this Symposium. The main function of my committee is to arrange for these meetings to be held, but the organization of the Symposium is done by the local, in this case the Hungarian, committee. Many of you will not know how much work has to be done to ensure that the programme runs smoothly, and I must thank our hosts for all the preparations they have made so that we can enjoy and profit from our stay in Hungary. I have visited the beautiful city of Budapest once before, and so I can be sure you will find it very pleasant and interesting. Many of you have heard at previous symposia about Dr. MÁRIA NÉMETH'S work on virus diseases of fruit trees and will welcome this opportunity to see in progress her current experiments and those of her colleagues here. It is a tribute to the research in Hungary that so many scientists, coming from no less than 24 countries, are attending this symposium. I feel sure that it will be as successful as the previous ten meetings have been in encouraging research workers to share their most recent results, not only in the formal paper presentations but also through personal discussions during a meal, over a cup of coffee or in a bus. These symposia have helped to stimulate international collaboration between research workers, most obviously by exchanging indicator plants and improvements in techniques. No less important is the rapid dissemination of new information and ideas which has allowed research to proceed almost simultaneously in many countries. One consequence is the rapid progress towards the provision of virus-free clones of most fruit tree varieties. I wish you all an enjoyable, interesting and stimulating symposium. As Chairman of the ISHS Working Group on Small Fruit Virus Diseases it gives me great pleasure to welcome participants to our IInd International Symposium. At the same time I wish to express the thanks of the group to the Plant Protection and Agrochemistry Centre of the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture for graciously allowing us to meet here and for making all the arrangements for the Symposium. We value the opportunity not only to meet with our colleagues from all parts of the world but also to see something of the propagation and culture of small fruits in Hungary. No doubt too we will see some of the problems, especially the virus problems, that confront growers in Hungary as they confront growers in all parts of the world. It is our belief that by mutual discussion of these problems and by sharing our knowledge about them we can come to a fuller understanding of the way the viruses spread and cause disease and of the ways in which their effects can be minimized or, we may hope, avoided altogether. Some of us work exclusively with viruses of small fruits but others, I suspect the majority, devote much time also to studying virus diseases of tree fruits and other kinds of crop. This arises at least in part because many of the viruses we study have wide host ranges and cause disease in more than one kind of crop. We therefore arranged our first meeting at Heidelberg to take place on the day preceding the Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus Diseases to enable those workers who wished to do so to attend both meetings at relatively small extra cost. This arrangement was considered by the members of the group to be highly successful and we have therefore, with the kind agreement of the Fruit Tree Virus Group, repeated it here in Budapest. This time however the meetings are overlapping rather than consecutive but our hosts have sought, in their programme arrangements, to minimize conflict of interest. Having glanced briefly through the programme I am sure we will have an interesting and profitable time and a chance to renew old acquaintances and to make many new ones. I wish to conclude these few short words of introduction by wishing you all a fruitful exchange of ideas in the coming days and by expressing the hope that our discussions and excursions will serve to increase still further our understanding of the causes and prevention of virus diseases in small fruits. | |
