Pathogen and pest risks to vegetatively propagated crops in humanitarian contexts: Geographic priorities for Cameroon and Ethiopia

Abstract

In humanitarian contexts, supporting agricultural recovery after natural or human-driven shocks--and strengthening vulnerable communities through development interventions--is critical when crop and seed shortages threaten food security and livelihoods. Cameroon and Ethiopia face humanitarian crises that disrupt the production of key food security crops like banana and plantain, cassava, potato, and sweetpotato. In this study, we address crop pathogen and pest effects in a humanitarian context, both in general and with a focus on their effects on planting material quality through seed degeneration. We provide the foundation for a national plant health risk analysis to inform regional and national surveillance and management strategies. We analyzed cropland density maps and applied network centrality metrics to identify locations that are candidates for disease and pest management and surveillance in Cameroon and Ethiopia. We used expert knowledge elicitation and global trade data to map pathogen and pest movement risks and characterize trade of crop-specific commodities and planting materials. We identified specific locations that may be important for pathogen and pest spread in Cameroon and Ethiopia, given their roles in the cropland network, and the reported presence of pathogens and pests. These results provide a baseline national plant health risk analysis for Cameroon and Ethiopia. We discuss strategies for ongoing improvement of a national plant health risk analysis, to inform decision-making in the humanitarian sector for designing on-the-ground actions to avoid unintentional spread of pathogens and pests during agricultural recovery interventions.