Shimla Symposium: Climate Change, Crop Diseases in Focus

Organising Secretary Santosh Watpade said delegates from ICAR institutes, agricultural and horticultural universities, IITs, research bodies and leading agribusiness companies will take part. Experts from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and other states are expected to share regional experiences.

What Will Be Discussed

The programme includes keynote talks, invited lectures, technical sessions, presentations and award sessions. Key topics include:

• Climate-driven plant diseases and how crop pathogens are changing
• Molecular diagnostics, genomics and genome editing
• Biological control and integrated disease management
• Disease-resistant crop varieties
• Next-generation, sustainable crop protection technologies

Special attention will go to how heat changes, moisture stress, shifting rainfall and extreme weather affect crop growth, disease, yields and farming practices. Experts will also look at ways to reduce crop losses and use water, fertilisers and other inputs more efficiently.

‘A Critical Challenge’

ICAR-CPRI Director Brajesh Singh said climate change is becoming a critical challenge for crop cultivation, affecting everything from plant growth to pest and disease outbreaks and overall farm productivity. He stressed the need for science-driven, climate-responsive plant health strategies that help farmers adapt.

Bringing Science to the Field

A major highlight will be the farmer-industry-researcher-policy interface. Many good scientific ideas never reach farmers. This session aims to close that gap through direct dialogue between researchers, policymakers, agribusinesses and farming communities, so new technologies can be adopted faster.

Why the Potato Institute Matters Here

Potato is one of India’s most important food crops and is highly sensitive to weather. Diseases like late blight thrive under certain temperature and moisture conditions, which makes potato research a useful window into how climate change can trigger sudden crop losses.

Why It Matters

Crop diseases already cause major losses every year. As the climate changes, new disease patterns could threaten farmers’ incomes and the country’s food security. Early research and practical solutions can help farmers stay a step ahead.

What Comes Next

Organisers hope the symposium will lead to affordable, adaptive and sustainable plant health solutions that can be taken from research labs to farmers’ fields.

With inputs from IANS.