Strengthening capacities for the identification and management of vegetable pests and diseases

Last week, 6 June 2024, was the end of an intense eight-day advanced technical training at WorldVeg headquarters in Taiwan. It was attended by 14 representatives of seed companies from Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, members of the Asia Pacific Seed Association (APSA)– eight of whom were women. And this was also the first such training course held in new state-of-the-art research facilities inaugurated in November last year.

Why is the course needed? Some 40% of global crop production is lost to pests annually. According to FAO, plant diseases alone account for an estimated US$220 billion in losses each year, while insect pests contribute another US$70 billion. The escalating threat of climate change further exacerbates this issue, underscoring the critical need for effective pest and disease management strategies to safeguard global food security. In response to this, WorldVeg has for five decades been developing resistant crop varieties and sustainable management practices, and supports seed companies in their own breeding programs. Related training courses provided by WorldVeg build on 50 years of expertise, offering optimized protocols and updated pest and disease diagnostics, resistance screening, and management approaches.

This particular bespoke course is 90% hands-on and laboratory-based, providing a ‘learning by doing’ experience. In includes seven modules: (1) general plant disease management including biocontrol assessment and diagnostics, (2) screening of fungal diseases highlighting anthracnose and late blight, (3) bacterial diseases focusing on bacterial wilt and spot, (4) viral diseases with case studies of tomato chlorosis virus and zucchini yellow mosaic virus, (5) viroid detection, (6) insect pest identification and resistance screening, and (7) integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. This training course, organized by WorldVeg Plant Pathologist Lourena Arone Maxwell and Private Sector Relations Manager Mandy Li-ju Lin, facilitated by scientists and technicians from the Safe and Sustainable Value Chain flagship, directly addresses the needs of APSA members for advanced training in meeting pest and disease challenges faced by vegetable producers.

The eight-day training course took place from Wednesday, May 29 to Thursday, June 6, 2024. It began with welcome remarks from WorldVeg Director General Marco Wopereis, who highlighted WorldVeg’s commitment to fostering innovation through its new science agenda. This was followed by Wuu-Yang (Willie) Chen’s sessions on viroid detection in pepper seeds using RT-PCR. On the second day, the focus shifted to pepper fungal diseases with hands-on identification, inoculation, and screening of anthracnose, led by Zong-Ming Sheu. This was complemented by the introduction to field disease diagnostics tools presented by Lourena Maxwell. The day concluded with Lead Plant Pathologist Ricardo Oliva explaining the critical role of disease surveillance, and introducing the new VeggieMon database.

The third day focused on tomato diseases, continuing with fungal disease management, particularly late blight, led by Chien-Hua (Wallace) Chen. This was followed by bacterial diseases, emphasizing innovative screening methods for bacterial wilt by Jaw-Rong Chen. The day concluded with a discussion with WorldVeg tomato breeder Assafey Eybishitz on WorldVeg’s research on tomato disease resistance.

Saturday was reserved for a field trip to a plant nursery, an organic farm, and a sugar factory. Monday focused on viruses, including identification, RNA isolation, RT-PCR and electrophoresis, and mechanical inoculation, led by Hao-wen (Owen) Cheng. This was followed by further diagnostics of bacterial diseases, specifically bacterial spot, by Jaw-Rong Chen and Hung-chia (Jo) Chan. Additionally, Lourena Maxwell and two of her graduate students, Naveen A.T. and Aravinthraju K., conducted a field exercise on disease epidemiology and biocontrol techniques. The final days concentrated on the identification of insect pests (aphids, thrips, leaf miners, whiteflies) by Mei-ying Lin and Jung-ching (Dew) Hsu, and integrated pest management (IPM) strategies led by WorldVeg Lead Entomologist Srinivasan Ramasamy. This included a discussion with Pepper Breeder Dr. Derek Barchenger on pest and disease resistance trials of pepper and a visit to the WorldVeg field phenotyping facility, guided by Head of Molecular Genetics Roland Schafleitner.

At the end of the final afternoon, each participant was presented with their certificate of attendance, and a few shared their views on the training. Nur Nordin from Malaysia said “I learned such a lot from so many experts, and also from the other participants, and that has helped me to build connections. I work a lot on anthracnose and bacterial wilt, and this exposed to me simpler methods for their rapid detection. WorldVeg did a great job in developing and implementing such a program, and that met my needs and that of my company very well.” Kai Ng from Hong Kong explained that “The techniques I learned, like PCR testing for viruses was inspiring, as was bacterial wilt inoculation, but especially so was pest and disease identification that I can now share with farmers as part of my work.” This was also confirmed by Ramya from India and Koici Inoue from Japan, who all found insect pest identification and control of particular interest.

Other comments received anonymously during the end of course survey, included: “all the scientist were so keen to share their experiences and skills to help us in adapting their protocols to our specific needs”, “these new and simpler protocols will help with my work”, “trainers were helpful and were passionate in answering our questions”, “the facilitators understood our level and did not make it difficult for us to understand.” And WorldVeg scientist and one of the trainers Willie Chen concluded that “It is so good to share knowledge and see how interested the trainees are – that makes me see more clearly how what I do is useful, and how others benefit.”

Trainees and trainers together…