In the same manner that nations collaborate to detect and stop human pandemics, a global surveillance system for crop diseases needs to be created to safeguard agricultural trade and food security, argues a team of experts in Science.
In the same manner that nations collaborate to detect and stop human pandemics, a global surveillance system for crop diseases needs to be created to safeguard agricultural trade and food security, argues a team of experts in Science.
More than 20 percent of the five staple crops that provide half the globe’s caloric intake are lost to pests each year. Climate change and global trade drive the spread, emergence, and re-emergence of crop disease, and containment action is often inefficient, especially in low-income countries. A Global Surveillance System (GSS) to strengthen and interconnect crop biosecurity systems could go a long way to improving global food security, argues a team of experts in the June 28 issue of Science.
“As part of efforts to satisfy global demand for food – which could mean increasing agricultural production by as much as 70 percent by 2050 – we need a GSS to reduce food lost to pests,” said Mónica Carvajal, a researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and lead author. “A lot of collaboration and discussion is needed to rapidly take action and avoid outbreaks that could negatively impact food security and trade.”
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