Skip to main content
APS Plant Health 2025 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
ViewAttendees 1

Room 313 A
Special Session

SPECIAL SESSION: A World in Crisis: Impact on Food Security and Disease Management from the Front Lines

Tuesday, August 5, 2025
8:00 AM - 9:15 AM HST
Location: Room 313 A

APS Committee Sponsoring the Proposed Session: Office of International Programs (OIP)

External Group Support/Co-Organization: None

Description: Protecting crop production from plant diseases to better ensure food security is a global issue. The relevance of "food security" becomes of increasing concern as the world's population grows and as issues such a climate change and political instability further disrupt farming and the lives of farmers, often in some of the most economically-challenged regions on Earth. With the external stress affecting agriculture comes greater need to protect crops from diseases. In this session, speakers who have first-hand experience with the threat of uncertainty on crop production in regions across the world will provide information on how such challenges are met. This session is not only for those interested in global affairs, but for all who wish to understand how our work in plant disease management becomes increasingly vital for future food security.

Plant Health 2025 Theme: This session unifies how global stresses, to include climate change, civil unrest, political instability, and emerging pest problems all affect food security and the need for improved strategies in disease management. The speakers, all from diverse backgrounds and heritage, are united in their message that collaboration is and will be key to meeting the issues faced by farmers and in agriculture.

Presentations:

  • 8:00 AM - 8:15 AM HST
    Impact of plant diseases and human-induced factors on crop production and food security in Africa

    Speaker: Stephen N. Wegulo – Department of Plant Pathology University of Nebraska

  • 8:15 AM - 8:30 AM HST
    Impacts of Climate Change, Geopolitical Tensions, and Global Instability on Agricultural Development, Food Security, and Plant Health in the CLM Mekong Subregion

    Speaker: Kim Eang Tho – Royal University of Agriculture

  • 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM HST
    Impact of Calamities on Agriculture in the Philippines: Challenges and Resilience in a Changing Climate

    Speaker: Jane Marian S. Luis – University of Hawaii at Manoa

  • 8:45 AM - 9:00 AM HST
    Managing aflatoxin risk in smallholder peanut production for humanitarian foods in Haiti: Lessons from the Peanut Innovation Lab and a case study food security resilience.

    Speaker: Jamie A. Rhoads, MS (he/him/his) – University of Georgia

  • 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM HST
    Peanut Smut: An Emerging Threat to Global Peanut Production and a Sustainable, Nutritious Food Supply

    Speaker: Robert C. Kemerait, Jr., PhD – UGA Dept of Plant Pathology