The United Nations has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). The year is a once in a lifetime opportunity to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development.

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that up to 40% of food crops are lost due to plant pests and diseases annually. This leaves millions of people without enough food to eat and seriously damages agriculture - the primary source of income for rural poor communities.

The team behind AIMS strives to improve knowledge exchange and create action on such issues including plant health with the utilization of assets through the AGORA/Research4Life and AGRIS platforms.

The International System for the Agricultural Science and Technology (AGRIS), a global multilingual bibliographic database that connects users directly to a rich collection of research and worldwide technical information on food and agriculture offers nearly 9,000 scientific publications related to plant health.

AGORA/Research4Life, which aims to reduce the knowledge gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries by providing affordable access to critical scientific research, offers 1,413,661 search results for plant health. Through the use of AGORA/Research4Life, it is possible to filter results based on searching “plant health and agriculture,” which offers 55,124 results. It is also possible to filter results based on searching “plant health and ecology,” which offers 95,454 results.

Offering such results through AGRIS and AGORA/Research4Life is important for users including government officials and decision makers to make informed decisions when discussing innovation and new policy to drive changes towards increasing plant health.

Plant health is increasingly under threat. Climate change, and human activities, have altered ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and creating new niches where pests can thrive. At the same time, international travel and trade has tripled in volume in the last decade and can quickly spread pests and diseases around the world causing great damage to native plants and the environment.

Learn more about what how to support #PlantHealth.