Senior Scientist Ranajit B andyopadhyay was one of several keynote speakers at the 11th International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP) held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, held 29 July to 3 August. He gave a presentation titled ‘A multipronged approach for aflatoxin mitigation in Africa centered on biological control’ under the keynote session on ‘The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety,’ highlighting mycotoxins.
Ranajit led the IITA contingent that included Leena Tripathi, Alej andro Ortega-Beltran, Titilayo Falade, and Everlyne Wosula. Falade and Wosula both won a bursary award from the Congress’ organization to attend. ICPP is held every five years, and was hosted by the American Phytopathological Society (APS). The theme of ICPP 2018 was Plant Health in a Global Economy.
Ranajit’s talk analyzed key challenges in implementing various recommendations for reducing aflatoxin and proposed elements of technological, institutional and policy options that can be combined into aflatoxin management systems in developing country agriculture. The presentation was well-received: several scientists searched out Ranajit afterwards to congratulate him and acknowledged the importance of IITA’s work to address aflatoxin contamination of maize and groundnut in sub-Saharan Africa. Many others made very supportive comments via Twitter.
Ortega-Beltran co-chaired the Mycotoxicology Committee meeting where special sessions on mycotoxins for next year’s APS annual meeting were discussed and planned. IITA’s work was highlighted through invited presentations, posters, and discussion sessions. In addition, IITA’s collaborative work with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA- ARS) was presented by several PhD students.
Ranajit was also invited to make a second presentation in the symposium on ‘Frontline of fungal secondary metabolite and mycotoxin research to mitigate threats to food security’. Co-authored with IITA colleagues and collaborators, Ranajit’s presentation was on ‘Development outcomes and impact of scaling-up of aflatoxin biocontrol in Africa’. This presentation summarized the benefits of Aflasafe in improving food and feed safety, trade, and income as well as current efforts and future projections in scaling up Aflasafe in Africa.
Tripathi delivered a talk on ‘Biotechnological strategies for control of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt Disease’ in the symposium ‘Advancing disease resistance traits from lab to field’. This presentation summarized IITA’s advances and prospects in developing transgenic banana resistant to Xanthomas wilt.
IITA’s pathology and biotechnology research received considerable exposure and was appreciated in the Congress.
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