Celebration on the International Day of Plant Health
On 12 May 2025, the World Vegetable Center hosted a formal commemoration of the International Day of Plant Health (IDPH) under the theme “Healthy Plants, People, and Planet: Uniting Plant Health with One Health.” The program underscored the fundamental role of healthy crops and ecosystems in ensuring better human nutrition, environmental resilience, and economic stability.
The opening remarks emphasized how robust crop protection and disease management not only safeguard yields but also reduce reliance on chemical inputs, protect pollinators, and contribute to safer food systems. This set the stage for a detailed overview of the One Health framework’s application to plant health. Speakers highlighted recent examples of invasive pests, emerging plant pathogens, and shifting climate conditions, stressing the need for collaboration, early detection strategies, and integrated management across plant, animal, and human health sectors.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. B.M. Prasanna, Distinguished Scientist and Regional Director for Asia at CIMMYT. He articulated a comprehensive vision for advancing global plant health. He called for harmonized data management—through shared tools, standards, and capacity building in the Global South—to underpin effective surveillance; the integration of pest- and pathogen-specific parameters into climate-smart crop-protection models to anticipate future vulnerabilities; the reinforcement of national and regional pest-risk analyses and early-warning systems for rapid outbreak response; the alignment of top-down policy frameworks with bottom-up farmer networks to scale integrated pest management; the creation of innovation platforms that validate and deploy host-resistance traits alongside eco-friendly biocontrol and cultural tactics for both single- and multi-pest challenges; coordinated research networks to tackle priority threats such as Fall Armyworm, Banana Bunchy Top Virus, Maize Lethal Necrosis, and Cassava Brown Streak Disease; and, critically, a gender-sensitive extension strategy that recognizes and empowers the essential role of women in plant-health management.
Building on this vision, WorldVeg scientists showcased the Center’s flagship initiatives through video presentations that underscored their teams’ diversity and collective impact in plant health, from participatory breeding programs to integrated pest management trials that have demonstrably reduced pesticide use.
The event concluded with the announcement of both the photo and essay contest winners. A panel of enthusiastic voters selected three outstanding photographs that captured the beauty and challenges of plant systems, and the top essays were honored for weaving personal experiences, community stories, and WorldVeg innovations into vivid illustrations of the “Healthy Plants, People, and Planet” One Health theme.
By reaffirming the vital connections among plant health, human well-being, and environmental stewardship, the 2025 IDPH celebration at WorldVeg reinforced the organization’s commitment to advancing sustainable, science-based solutions that will benefit agriculture and society for generations to come.
