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Published on
24.04.25
Photo credit: CGIAR
On May 12, CGIAR joins global partners in celebrating the International Day of Plant Health, highlighting the vital role of plants in sustaining life on Earth and the urgent need to protect them from increasing threats.
In a world facing accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity, plant health is more than a scientific concern: it’s a cornerstone of resilient food systems, community wellbeing, and planetary health.
Plant health under threat
Plant health is human health; it’s climate health; it’s our collective future. Healthy plants are the quiet allies in our fight against hunger, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
They make up 80% of the food we eat and produce 98% of the oxygen we breathe. Yet, they are under constant threat. Every year, up to 40% of global food crops are lost to pests and diseases, costing the global economy more than USD 220 billion.
Photo credit: The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT
The world’s food supply relies on approximately 150 plant species, with just 12 providing three-quarters of our food, highlighting the importance of plant diversity for food security. Climate change is accelerating the spread of plant pests and diseases, while land degradation, trade expansion, and biodiversity loss increase the vulnerability of ecosystems to outbreaks.
Photo credit: The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT
CGIAR’s approach to plant health
At CGIAR, protecting plant health begins with safeguarding biodiversity and ensuring equitable access to plant genetic resources. Our approach emphasizes integrated, science-based solutions—spanning from conservation to innovation—ensuring a resilient, inclusive food system.
Under CGIAR’s Sustainable Farming Program, plant health takes center stage through targeted efforts to reduce crop losses and contamination. The initiative is strengthening plant health systems by advancing diagnostics and surveillance to tackle pests, diseases, weeds, and harmful mycotoxins. By harnessing frontier technologies and investing in eco-friendly, integrated solutions, CGIAR is helping farmers monitor risks, predict outbreaks, and manage threats more sustainably.
Photo credit: The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT
The eleven CGIAR genebanks are custodians of the world’s most diverse publicly available crop collections. These resources—seeds, tubers, and other plant material—help researchers, breeders, and farmers develop solutions for a more resilient agriculture, providing a bulwark against mounting threats to food security. The new Genebanks Accelerator will supercharge this work, using technologies like computer vision, AI chatbots, and bioinformatics to help a wider range of users find the crop diversity they need.
Genebanks and breeding programs take great care to ensure that the plant material they distribute is free from pests and diseases. CGIAR has established Germplasm Health Units to lead this effort, centralising controls and serving as centers of excellence in plant health. The scientists—or seed doctors—in these units carry out hundreds of thousands of tests and treatments every year. They constantly develop improved diagnostic technologies and novel therapies and share their expertise with national partners around the world.
At CGIAR, we recognize that protecting plant health is fundamental to achieving food and nutrition security, climate resilience, and sustainable development. That’s why we’re investing in integrated, science-based solutions that address plant health from multiple angles—combining innovation, partnerships, and a One Health perspective.
Center-led innovation in plant health
Across CGIAR, research centers are advancing plant health through diverse, locally grounded approaches.
For example, CIFOR-ICRAF scientists, in collaboration with FAO and other partners, employ advanced spectral diagnostics to accurately assess soil and plant health. ICRISAT is strengthening seed systems and crop protection, and recently launched a Plant Health Detector App that helps farmers identify crop diseases using their smartphones.
Credits: CGIAR
The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT is applying agrobiodiversity research to support sustainable and integrated pest management, such as training Ugandan farmers to use diverse bean and banana varieties to combat diseases, collaborating with Indian communities to mainstream native crops and strengthen local seed systems, and developing the Tumaini app, which enables farmers to detect and manage crop diseases in bananas and beans using smartphone-based diagnostics.
CIMMYT leads initiatives like the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, which enhances breeding efficiency through early germplasm access in South Asia, and the Wheat Disease Early Warning Advisory System (DEWAS), providing near-real-time, model-based risk forecasts to help farmers proactively manage threats like rust and blast diseases.
Credits: The Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT
Partnerships that protect and empower
Protecting plant health is not just about preventing loss—it’s about creating opportunities. Our work is deeply rooted in collaboration, with farmers, policymakers, researchers, and private sector actors all playing key roles.
Whether it’s delivering early warning systems for pest outbreaks, co-developing climate-resilient varieties, or empowering farmers with sustainable pest management practices and guidelines, CGIAR is committed to ensuring locally relevant, scalable solutions.
Credits: Neil Palmer / CCAFS
This International Day of Plant Health, join us in growing a more resilient future
On May 12 and beyond, let’s commit to protecting the world’s plants. Not only because they feed us, but because they sustain ecosystems, livelihoods, and hope for future generations.
Credits: CGIAR
Explore how CGIAR is advancing plant health science and innovation to build a healthier, greener future for all:
Plant health is a key part of CGIAR’s 2025–2030 Research Portfolio. Protecting plant health as a foundation for global food and nutrition security contributes to a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable food system.
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Credits: CGIAR
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