golden nematode<\/a>, a microscopic invertebrate roundworm. <\/p>\nAnd the government didn\u2019t just close the lid on potatoes. It also prohibited the growth of nightshades \u2014\u00a0which include tomatoes and eggplants \u2014 in Central Saanich.<\/p>\n
However, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently found the nematode threat was no longer present in much of the area, and lifted the complete ban in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The potato returns<\/p>\n
Farmers in the region are now harvesting their first potato crop in decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sol Kinnis is one of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s a big favourite,” Kinnis, owner of City’s Edge Farm, told CBC\u2019s On The Island.<\/p>\n
![\"Potatoes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787596097_415_default.jpg\")
Farmers in Central Saanich are harvesting their first potato crop in decades, following the lift of a ban that dated back to the 1980s. (Submitted by Sol Kinnis)<\/p>\n
When she moved to Central Saanich, she had to phase out harvesting spuds, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a cause for disappointment among her clients, to whom she sends weekly boxes of produce.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now that the beloved crop is back, it\u2019s been a homecoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It just makes it more stable,” said Kinnis. “There’s more stuff on the table at the market, and more stuff to offer in people’s boxes.”<\/p>\n
A pest-control landmark <\/p>\n
For the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the lifting of the ban represents a milestone.<\/p>\n
“It was a great accomplishment, because it’s rare when you can eradicate a quarantine pest,” said Gordon Henry, a national manager with the agency.<\/p>\n
Henry said the nematode was designated a quarantine pest because it\u2019s especially hard to eradicate.<\/p>\n
Regular potato bugs and disease can be removed with natural cultivation practices and cleanliness, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Tiny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787596097_744_default.jpg\")
The CFIA designated the golden nematode as a quarantine pest because it\u2019s especially hard to eradicate. (Photo Courtesy of the Nematology Lab, Ontario Plant Laboratories, CFIA)<\/p>\n
But the nematode cyst can live dormant without a host for over 20 years in soil, lying in wait for nightshades to be introduced into the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It can move with potato tubers, but it can also hitch a ride on equipment or even the wind, Henry said. So drastic measures had to be taken.<\/p>\n
And it seems like it\u2019s paid off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“What made this work was the fact that in 1982, they actually prohibited the host,” said Henry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think if you allowed potato production to occur in some nature, you would have always allowed the population to multiply a little bit, and it would have been much more difficult.”<\/p>\n
An ongoing challenge<\/p>\n
However, Central Saanich isn\u2019t completely out of the woods.<\/p>\n
There are still roughly 50 hectares of land in Central Saanich where a potato ban remains in effect, Henry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We did find living cysts, or evidence of cysts, that remained a concern to us,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, in the meantime, some farmers are cautiously optimistic about the return of the spud.<\/p>\n
“It’s another challenge,” said Michell. “We can go on, go after and see if we can grow some nice potatoes in Central Saanich again, which I’m pretty sure we can.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-869980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n