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DTE Coverage: Plant pandemics

What are plant pandemics? Why do they pose a threat to global food security?

1. Plant pandemics: They are the next big contagion and pose threats to global food security

Farmers in the border villages of West Bengal are reluctant to grow wheat and are shifting to banana, maize and lentils since Bangladesh started reporting outbreaks of wheat blast disease in 2016Photographs: KA Shreya

Buoyed by climate change and global trade, pathogens that cause disease outbreaks in food crops are spreading far and wide. They are also evolving fast to reproduce quickly and infect new hosts

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2. Plant pandemics: They could be hastened due to deadly and global pathogenic spread

Maize lethal necrosis has no treatment and can cause up to 100 per cent yield lossPhotograph: Tony Malesi

From fruits to cereals to vegetables, nothing has been left untouched by pathogens, thus threatening global food security

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3. Plant pandemics: Who are the fearsome eight?

Source: Our World in Data, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, scientific reports

The fear of plant pandemics rises as crop pathogens cause large-scale outbreaks simultaneously across countries

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4. Plant pandemics: Coordinated effort and active surveillance can forestall outbreaks

Cassava brown streak disease infects 97 per cent of the cassava crop on the field. Farmers in Africa say that the disease can lead to widespread hunger in the continentPhotograph: Angela Rwabose

As plant diseases spread across continents, a greater scrutiny is the need of the hour

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World

Food Crops

Global food security

contagion

Plant pandemics