The United Nations have declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), 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. To promote a global conversation about plant health and the future of sustainable agriculture as part of IYPH, CABI, Koppert Biological Systems and Wageningen University are organising a conference entitled Plant Health, Agriculture & Bioscience (PHAB 2020) which will be held on 9-11 September, 2020 in the Hague, Netherlands.

Despite a number of other events planned to coincide with the IYPH, PHAB 2020 will be unique in that it aims to bring together researchers in agriculture and the plant sciences, the crop protection industry and agri-business, as well as policy makers and public sector professionals who apply the research and products. Our aim not only to link these three sectors, but also to bring to together plant health and agricultural stakeholders from across the world in a truly global event.

The call for papers is now officially open and we invite you to submit a paper either for oral presentation or as a poster. There are four conference tracks covering a wide range of topics:

  1. Threats to plant health
  2. Plant health practices
  3. Plant health innovations
  4. The future of food

and (in line with our aim of bringing a diverse range of stakeholders together) we welcome submissions from both the natural and social sciences, development practitioners, policymakers and regulators and the private sector. Instead of submitting individual papers, organisations are also welcome to submit a proposal for a panel of 3-5 speakers.

PHAB 2020 is also working with Springer Nature to publish a special conference edition of the CABI Agriculture & Bioscience open access journal, comprised of papers presented at the conference. When submitting your paper, please indicate whether you would be interested in publishing it in the journal.

Please share the announcement with any plant health, agriculture and bioscience stakeholders in your networks. For more information, please visit the conference website at https://phab2020.com/