Farmers are working with the Environment Department to investigate whether such plants – including evening primrose and borage – could be grown in fields instead of the popular potato.
It is hoped that by rotating the royal with alternative crops, fewer potatoes will be dumped and its biggest pest, the eelworm, will decline.
Environment Minister Steve Luce said that finding equally lucrative crops to enable farmers to switch from mono-cropping to rotation is crucial to combating the eelworm, also known as potato cyst nematode.
Where levels of PCN are high it can cause brown blemishes on the skin of tubers – and the UK supermarkets’ demand for a prefect product results in potatoes being dumped.
The minister is also keen to reduce wastage by make the Jersey Royal an even more short-season niche market product as it faces increased competition in the UK retail market from other varieties.
