ISPP Subject Matter Committee: Crop Losses

Chair Address, Phone/Mobile, Email	Andrea Ficke Department of Fungal Diseases, Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health, Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) Tel.: 0047 92431557 Email: andrea.ficke@nibio.no, LinkedIn
Co-chair Address, Phone/Mobile, Email	Serge Savary Toulouse, France; IARI, New Delhi, India (adjunct Professor); UC-Davis, USA (guest Scientist) Email: ssavary01@gmail.com Neil Roberts Quantitative Biology & Epidemiology Research Group, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, California, USA, Email: nmcroberts@ucdavis.edu Alberto Santini National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, Toscana Region, Italy Email: alberto.santini@cnr.it Lava Kumar Plant Health Program Leader / Head of the Germplasm Health Unit, and Virology and Molecular Diagnostics Unit International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria Email: L.Kumar@cgiar.org
Established	The ISPP Crop Loss Subject Matter Committee was created at the ICPP Congress of Beijing, August 26, 2013.
Objectives/Focus issues of the SMC	A key focus and global issue that the SMC addresses is the absence of a global, open, collaborative repository of crop loss data. This is a major obstacle for fact-based Science and research prioritization in plant pathology (and in the plant sciences in general). Activities of the SMC are meant to mobilize the scientific community on this challenge. Assessing, understanding and communicating losses due to diseases is essential to prioritize research in those areas that are most relevant to advance the impact of plant pathology.
About the SMC	The SMC Crop Losses was established at the ICPP 2013, in Beijing in order to make crop losses due to diseases a central topic in the global scientific community (Education, Research, and Extension). Over the past decade, members of the ISPP Crop Loss SMC have conducted two globally networked activities on the impacts of diseases and the losses caused by plant pathogens. The SMC also welcomes colleagues interested in non-crop losses, e.g., forest losses, to join the Committee to exchange ideas, concepts and methods.
Coming events (next workshops/meetings)	A virtual meeting will be held in 2026 to discuss topics/thematic sessions and speakers for the coming ISPP in 2028 (Australia)
Past events	Members of the Loss SMC have met at the Congresses of Beijing (2013), Boston (2018), and Lyon (2023). During these meetings, collective work on crop loss data, data analysis, and syntheses has been discussed. Digital meeting on December 11th, 2025, to discuss the name and purpose of the SMC and confirm the Co-Chairs
Committee Activities	A web-based global, open, collaborative repository of crop loss data has been discussed and initiated during the ICPP meeting in Lyon. Several members of the SMC have participated to the workshop on the global Plant health Assessment (GPHA), an initiative of the ISPP (https://sites.google.com/view/global-plant-health-assessment/home), phase two (Future Plant Health) in Toulouse, 20-22 November, 2024. "A Synthesis of Methods to Assess Crop Losses Caused by Plant Diseases", a report of the Global Plant Health Assessment Project and the Crop Loss Assessment Subject Matter Committee to the Executive Committee of the ISPP, is being developed.
Reports	Report 2018-2023:  ISPP SMC Report 2023 Crop Loss Report 2013-2018: ISPP SMC Report 2018 Crop Loss Report 2008-2013: ISPP SMC Report 2013 Crop Loss
CURRENT Committee Members	Adam H Sparks Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development's Agriculture and Food Division, Western Australia Australia Alberto Santini National Research Council of Italy  Italy Andrea Ficke Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy Research Norway Ayalsew Zerihun Curtin University Australia Clayton Hollier Louisiana State University USA Dalla Lana, Felipe Louisiana State University USA Emmerson Del Ponte Universidade Federal De Vicosa Brazil Federica Bove   Corteva Agriscience Italy Jatinder Kumar Pantnagar University India Laetitia Willocquet INRAE France Larry Madden Ohio State University USA Lava Kumar International Insitute for Tropical Agriculture Nigeria Lise Korsten University of Pretoria South Africa Manoel Penachio Gonçalves ESALQ-USP Brazil Nancy Castilla International Rice Research Institute Philipines Neil McRoberts UC Davis USA Paul Esker Penn State University USA Paul Melloy CSIRO Australia Paul Teng Singapore Nanyang University Singapore Serge Savary IARI India Tito Caffi Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Italy Vittorio Rossi Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Italy Wopke van der Werf Wageningen University The Netherlands Zhanhong Ma China Agricultural University China
Publications	Savary, S., Willocquet, L., Pethybridge, S.J., Esker, P., McRoberts, N. and Nelson, A., 2019. The global burden of pathogens and pests on major food crops. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3(3):430-439.