MULTAN:A two-day international conference on Plant Protection was organised by Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture (MNSUA) for providing insight to farmers and students into smart ways of protecting plants and recommended artificial intelligence (AI)-based system for identification and management of insect pests, pathogens and weeds to get higher production.
Chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Dr Ghulam Muhammad Ali was the chief guest at the inaugural session while Secretary Agriculture joined as chief guest in the closing session at the Institute of Plant Protection, MNSUA, on Wednesday.
Keynote speakers including Dr Tariq Butt, Chair Bioscience Swansea University, UK, Dr Syed Farooq Shah CEO Razbio Limited UK, Dr Fatma A. Mostafa from Egypt, Alaa Alnaimee, Ghulam Farid CEO Rise AG, Sultana Rasheed from Japan shed light on innovations and advancements in plant protection technology to protect the plant resources from the invasion and infestation of insect pests, plant pathogens and weeds.
Experts recommended that under the changing climate, AI-based systems were necessary for the identification and management of pests (insects, pathogens, weeds). They recommended the development of the pest prediction model for real-time monitoring, the intensive need to explore pesticide resistance mechanisms, the need for development formulation of biopesticides, on-site research and solutions through interactive sessions with stakeholders, develop transgenic-based resistance against pests, Refugia management for conservation of insect biodiversity and resistance dilation, and production technology revision to synchronize with effects of climate change.
The conference provided opportunities for collaborations and alliances on plant protection, stimulating and facilitating discussions and dialogues between stakeholders like scientists, researchers and practitioners including policymakers, business people, civil society and farmers.
Researchers said that the entire success of crop protection solely relies on devising good agricultural practices that can mitigate these issues.
It may be mentioned here that Smart Plant Protection (SPP) is one of the forums created to gather the intellectuals and advocates of Plant Protection, sharing their findings that would lay the foundation for future research to benefit the farming community.
SPP-2023 was organized with four main themes including insect pest management, Plant disease diagnostics and management, Weeds management, and Biotechnology for plant protection.
The conference committee undergoes a double-blind peer review for all submitted abstracts. The acceptance ratio was about 75% of the total submissions.
Around 350 participants were registered and about 60 oral talks were selected from Australia, Benin, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, England, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sudan, Turkiye and the United States of America.
The recommendations would be published as Science for Farmers in the local language soon to benefit farming community.