National Plant Pathology Research Council (NPPRC), Khumaltar, Lalitpur organized the Project Inception Workshop on “Mitigating soil-borne diseases to improve smallholder farmer’s livelihood and food security in Nepal” funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture led by the University of California at Davis and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on 1st September 2023, with eighty participants from multi-disciplinary team, to disseminate information regarding the ways to mitigate soil-borne diseases and improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and food security in Nepal. The major objective of the event was to inform farmers regarding ASD (Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation) methods to fight soil-borne pathogens and digitization in the record-keeping of farmers’ fields. Nepal Agricultural Research Council is implementing this project across the country to build resilient soil systems to tackle the emerging issues of soil-borne diseases in vegetable crops in commercial farms across the country.
A 3-day, from December 1-3, workshop on TR4 diagnostics training for the plant health technicians to equip them with accurate knowledge and hands-on training to diagnose the newly discovered TR4 race of Banana wilt in Nepal. The training was organized by the National Plant Pathology Research Center (NPPRC), in collaboration with the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO), Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center (PQPMC) under the financial support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Nepal. hosted by the NARC-Molecular Plant Pathology Lab for the researchers of NARC and Agriculture and Forestry University Nepal The official training gathered about 40 participants where five participants were from Provincial Plant Protection Lab: 5 (Karnali and Madhes Province), two from University (Agriculture and Forestry University and Far-western University), five from PQPMC, one from Central Agriculture Laboratory, eight from NARC and Twenty NARC Research Interns. Overall, the programs covered the theoretical points of view on TR4 diagnosis, experience on invasion, management to molecular tools, and methodologies used for the isolation, extraction, detection, and long-term preservation of fusarium.