First International Conference on Plant Protection held at Sultan Qaboos University

Muscat: The First International Conference on Plant Protection, organized by Sultan Qaboos University, started today, represented by the Department of Plant Sciences at the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, under the auspices of His Excellency Dr. Saud bin Hamoud Al Habsi, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, and will last for 3 days.

The organization of the conference comes in response to the urgent necessity that keeping pace with the rapid developments in agricultural science and technology related to food production processes, the tremendous discoveries and developments in the field of detecting pathogens and pests affecting plants, and effective diagnostic and management tools, which confirm the need for innovative methods in research related to disease management. And agricultural pests and the dissemination of knowledge and the latest relevant information among researchers from different countries of the world in order to support efforts to manage agricultural diseases and pests.

More than 130 researchers and specialists from specialized authorities within the Sultanate of Oman, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources, Royal Court Affairs, the Agricultural Society and private universities, will participate in the conference, as well as participants from outside the country from Qatar, Pakistan, Italy, Tunisia, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Britain. More than 90 scientific papers over the next two days.

The conference includes a set of topics, most notably: pests of economic importance, fungal diseases and their control, in addition to viral, phytoplasma and bacterial diseases in plants, epidemiology of plant diseases, post-harvest pests, diseases and mycotoxins, with integrated management of pests and diseases, interactions of insects with the host and pathogen, pesticides, biological control, biotechnology in plant protection, weed management, quarantine and phytosanitary measures.

Prof. Abdullah bin Muhammad Al-Saeedi, Dean of the College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences at the University, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, in which he said: This conference focuses on pests and diseases that affect agriculture in various countries of the world, and presented the latest science in this field.

Al-Saeedi added that the conference is an important platform to encourage cooperation between researchers and an important event for the exchange of knowledge and the latest research results on pests of economic importance, fungal, viral and bacterial diseases, post-harvest diseases, mycotoxins, integrated management of pests, diseases and weeds and their management.