Red alert: Cicada threatens potato harvest in Baden-Württemberg!

Red alert: Cicada threatens potato harvest in Baden-Württemberg!

There is worrying news from agriculture: A highly dangerous plant disease is threatening crops in Germany, especially sugar beets and potatoes. This threat is caused by the reed leafhopper (Pentastiridius leporinus), which transmits the bacterium Candidatus Phytoplasma solani. The current situation, which first occurred in Baden-Württemberg, is now spreading further and has now also reached Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria and Hesse. The cicada has even spread to northern Germany, to Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. According to Merkur, the Ministry of Agriculture in Stuttgart describes this development as a “serious threat” to the supply of domestic potatoes, vegetables and sugar.

In the affected regions, farmers report alarming losses in yield and quality. The President of the German Farmers' Association, Joachim Rukwied, expressed his "very great concerns" about the rapid spread of the cicada and urgently calls for effective control measures. The crop losses are significant: in 2024, producers in relevant beet growing areas in southwest Germany recorded losses of up to 25 percent. In some cases, declines of up to 70 percent were recorded in potato cultivation. Environmental expert Isabell Pergner from the State Farmers' Association makes it clear that the continued existence of cultivation on some farms is in question.

Transmission and spread of the cicada

What are actually the causes of the rapid spread of the reed leafhopper? According to the BMEL, it is a small flying insect whose nymphs overwinter in the soil and contribute to the transmission of diseases by sucking on crop residues and roots of winter crops. The adult cicadas fly into host plant populations from May onwards and are particularly active in warm early summers and summers, which is favored by climate change.

In the last growing season, infections were registered on 85,000 hectares of sugar beets and 22,000 hectares of potatoes in Germany. The cicada is spreading quickly and can now be found in almost all federal states. The consequences are dramatic: infected plants appear wilted, roots and tubers become rubbery, which not only leads to significant reductions in yield but also affects the taste of the crop. This means that potatoes with soft tubers or signs of rot cannot be sold.

Urgent need for action

The calls for effective plant protection measures are becoming louder and louder. With the increase in crop failures, the economic pressure on entire regions is becoming visible. According to Tagesschau, there is an urgent need to regularly approve effective plant protection products and to advance research into resistance breeding and control strategies. However, with eradication of this invasive cicada species considered virtually impossible, farmers have no choice but to examine current cicada control strategies.

There are currently no regularly approved products to combat these pests; only emergency approvals for some plant protection products have been granted for 120 days. The situation remains tense and farmers need to consider alternative strategies to protect their crops. Whether this will be achieved through crop rotation, crop cultivation measures or other innovative approaches is anyone's guess - a solution must be found quickly to prevent future crop failures.

The developments surrounding the reed leafhopper show once again how vulnerable agricultural production is and the challenges our farmers face. It remains to be hoped that effective solutions will be found to ensure healthy and productive harvests in the future.