The coordinators of AsiaBlight – a network of scientists, companies and farmers working to improve the management of potato late blight disease in Asia – have launched a contest for the design of an AsiaBlight logo. The contest is open to anyone who works on potato and/or late blight, but not representatives of private companies, and a prize of US $800 will be awarded for the winning logo.
Late blight is the most devastating disease for potato. It was responsible for the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and it continues to cause billions of dollars in yield loss annually for potato farmers across the globe. Concerned scientists and agribusiness people founded AsiaBlight in 2015 with a goal of reducing the negative effect of late blight in Asia, in a sustainable way, by improving collaboration and communication.
AsiaBlight is hosted by the CIP-China Center for Asia Pacific (CCCAP), in Yanqing County, Beijing. It was modeled after the regional networks EuroBlight, in Europe, USAblight in the United States, and Tizón Latina, in Latin America.
The winning AsiaBlight logo design is the work of Dr Buddhi Prakash Sharma, a scientist from the Nepal Agricultural Research Council’s National Potato Research Program. He has done extensive research on late blight and was one of the founders of AsiaBlight, attending its first meeting in 2014. He will be recognized for his logo design at the AsiaBlight International Conference in Beijing in October 2019.
