The global food security challenge demands feeding two billion more people by 2050, requiring innovations in plant health research to protect crops from pests and diseases. Pests currently cause 20-40% of global crop yield losses, costing $290 billion annually. Healthy crops are crucial for sustaining agricultural trade, ensuring compliance with international standards, and maintaining market access. Poor plant health can lead to trade restrictions and economic losses. Thus, effective plant health management is essential for global food security and competitive trade.
The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) is an apolitical membership based organization established in 1990 by FAO dedicated to the promotion and strengthening of agricultural research and innovation systems in the Asia-Pacific region. APAARI brings together National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), international agricultural research centers, higher education institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. APAARI has a membership strength of 80 organizations including 22 countries as its core members. APAARI’s mission is to “Promoting, coordinating and strengthening agriculture and agri-food research and innovation systems through partnerships and collaboration, capacity development and advocacy for sustainable agricultural development in Asia and the Pacific.” These are achieved through four thematic areas: Natural Resource Management, Risk Mitigation, Inclusive Development, Policy and Advocacy-Analysis. The current conference organized cuts across these themes with focus on plant health research coordination and management.
The EUPHRESCO (European Plant Health Research and Coordination) network in its current form has existed since April 1, 2014 with global mandate and is hosted within the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO). EUPHRESCO aims to create a strong sustainable network of funders, policy makers and research organizations. EUPHRESCO is not a research funder in itself. The network’s primary goal is to improve plant health by facilitating joint research projects, sharing information, and aligning research priorities among the member countries. EUPHRESCO III partnered with APAARI-CABI to operate in Southeast and South Asia to achieve this primary goal. EUPHRESCO III supports its members throughout the identification, prioritization and implementation of trans-national research topics/projects. It is in this context, this international conference is sponsored by EUPHRESCO.
