Global challenges facing plant pathology: multidisciplinary approaches to meet the food security and environmental challenges in the mid-twenty-first century

Summary

This narrative review, published in CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, examines the expanding role of plant pathology in addressing future global food security and environmental challenges. The authors argue that progress requires multidisciplinary collaboration integrating plant pathology with broader agricultural, ecological, policy, and regulatory sciences. The review emphasises emerging priority areas including precision agriculture, host resistance deployment, novel biological control approaches, advanced surveillance and detection technologies, and adaptation to climate change impacts on pathogen dynamics and crop vulnerability.

UK applicability

The review's emphasis on climate-responsive disease management, host genetic diversity, and surveillance technologies is directly applicable to UK agriculture, where shifting climate patterns are altering pest and pathogen pressures on temperate crops. The call for multidisciplinary policy integration aligns with UK food security strategy and defra's ambitions for sustainable farming systems.

Key measures

Not applicable; this is a narrative review synthesising research priorities rather than reporting quantitative metrics

Outcomes reported

The review identifies key research priorities and interdisciplinary approaches required for plant pathology to address food security and environmental challenges through the mid-twenty-first century. It synthesises recent developments across disease management, host genetic diversity, biological control, surveillance technologies, and climate change impacts on agricultural systems.

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