According to the latest estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), up to 40% of food crops worldwide are lost every year due to pests and plant diseases. As a consequence, millions of people suffer from hunger and agriculture, the main source of income for poor rural communities is severely affected.
Plants are the source of most of the air we breathe and the food we eat, however, producers often ignore how to keep them healthy, which can have devastating results. The FAO believes that policies and actions to promote plant health are essential to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2: End of Poverty and Zero Hunger.
For all these reasons, the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared 2020 to be the International Year of Plant Health. “Plant health is increasingly threatened. Climate change and human activities have degraded ecosystems, reduced biodiversity, and created new niches where pests can thrive,” stated Marieta Sakalian, an expert at the United Nations Environment Program.
Threats
According to FAO, environmental degradation, travel, and international trade, which can rapidly spread pests and diseases worldwide causing significant damage to native plants and the environment, have tripled in the last ten years.
In this sense, the institution recalled, protecting plants from pests and diseases is much more profitable than dealing with large-scale phytosanitary emergencies. Once they have established, pests and diseases are often impossible to eradicate and their management requires a lot of time and money.
Source: elintranews.com
