After one and a half year of intense advocacy and mobilization backed by activities around the world, the International Year of Plant Healh (IYPH) is coming to an end. A wide range of actions and events, taken not only by the international community but also by businesses, journalists and individuals, have risen awareness about the importance to improve plant health and build a better future. Next stop will be 1 July, when the closing ceremony will be held in Helsinki. It will present the outcomes, highlight achievement and trigger further reflections on the status of plant health around the world and stress the importance of plant health to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

About the event

Date: 1 July 2021

For attending the event virtually, you can register here.

You can find out mor more information and details about the agenda here.

Why plant health matters for the right to food?

Plants can strongly contribute to turn food security into a reality for everyone. They produce almost all of the oxygen we breathe and make up 80 percent of the food we eat.

The pandemic has shown the fragility of agri-food systems. Climate change threatens to reduce not only the quantity of crops, lowering yields, but also their nutritious value. Rising temperatures also mean that more plant pests are appearing earlier and in places where they were never seen before. This poses a high risk, as plant pests are yet responsible for losses of up to 40% percent of food crops globally.

At the same time, international travel and trade, which have tripled in volume in the last decade, can quickly increase the magnitude of plant pests and diseases around the world, causing great damage to native plants and the environment.

Joining forces

Against this backdrop, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat and the FAO Right to Food Team embarked in 2020 for first time on collaboration.

This partnership was initially framed within the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). As a result, they united for Human Rights Day, intervened with a joint statement at the Meeting of the High Level meeting of the Committee on World Food Security and organized a side event during the 47^th session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Kingdom of Spain. Efforts to protect plant health and guarantee food security will go beyond the International Year and.