Global Crop Health Survey

The survey is now closed. As of February 1, 2017, the overall results of the Global Survey on Crop Losses, which had started on November 1, 2016, had led to the following results: 989 responses from 219 experts (contributors) in 67 countries covering 137 individual pathogens and pests.

The data set, further, is well-balanced, with very large contributions from North America and South Asia, but also sizeable contributions from South America, East Asia, South-East Asia, and Europe, as well as workable contributions from Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Oceania.

This is a tremendous success, since for the first time ever, a collective expert assessment is generated on the importance of diseases and pests worldwide, on the world's five most important food crops. The volume of responses should enable to derive worldwide as well as regional estimates of crop losses derived from these assessments.

On behalf of the ISPP subject matter committee on Crop Losses, we wish to thank all contributors for having contributed and volunteered information in this effort. This is a fine example of the strength of a collective, volunteered action.

In the coming weeks, the data set which has been assembled from these assessments will undergo a first set of processing, to provide (expert-based) crop loss estimates (1) by crops, (2) by disease and pests and (3) by regions of the world, and worldwide.

All the reporting which will be made will include the list of contributors who have volunteered information.

Authors

S. Savary, INRA, Centre INRA de Toulouse, France

A. Nelson, ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands

L. Willocquet, INRA, Centre INRA de Toulouse, France

S. Pethybridge, Cornell University, USA

P. Esker, Penn State University

N. McRoberts, University of California, Davis, USA

Photos provided by S. Savary and S. Pethybridge