Executive Secretary Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) 4th Floor, FAO Annex Building 202/1 Larn Luang Road, Klong Mahanak Sub-District Pomprab Sattrupai District Bangkok 10100, Thailand

Extension Specialist and Professor of Nematology Department of Entomology and Nematology Main Office, UC Davis Briggs Hall, Room 367 Davis, CA 95616-5270, USA

Maize Pathology Lead – Sub Saharan Africa International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) United Nations Avenue Gigiri. P.O. Box 1041–00621 Nairobi, Kenya

Dan Roberts is a Microbiologist and Research Leader of the USDA-ARS, Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, USA. His research is in molecular plant-microbe interactions and biological control of soil-borne plant pathogens. He also has interests in use of geographic information systems (GIS) in sustainable agriculture. He has over 130 research publications in these research areas. Topic of the lecture Precision agriculture and geospatial techniques for sustainable disease control

Dilip Lakshman is a Research Plant Pathologist in the Sustainable Agricultural Systems laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, USA. He obtained a B.Sc. (Ag) Hons. (Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal), an M.Sc. in Plant Pathology (IARI, New Delhi), and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology (Cornell University, USA). Dr. Lakshman investigated on molecular identification and pathogenesis of viruses, viroids, and fungal pathogens, transgenic disease resistance, and alternative disease control methods. His current research focuses on the genomics of Rhizoctonia groups of soilborne pathogens to understand biology, genetic diversity, and pathology, and to develop anastomosis group-specific identification markers. Topic of the lecture Exploring the Genomic Landscapes of Rhizoctonia solani and Development of RsolaniDB - a Comprehensive Omic Resource for the Soilborne Basidiomycetous Phytopathogen

Department of Plant Sciences Sultan Qaboos University Muscat, Oman

Professor Department of Plant Science University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Canada

Ranajit Bandyopadhyay received BSc (1974) and MSc (1976) degrees from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology and Ph.D. from Haryana Agriculture University (1980). Working from ICRISAT-India and IITA-Nigeria, Bandyopadhyay has made invaluable contributions to manage seemingly intractable crop diseases in Africa, Brazil, and the U.S. He co-founded and leads the Africa-wide initiative to scale-up an aflatoxin biocontrol technology to limit crop aflatoxin content. His team registered 14 biocontrol products in 10 African countries. New product development is underway in another 12 countries. Commercial partners manufacture and distribute products in eight countries where smallholder farmers have used them in nearly a million acres.

Judith & David Coffey Chair of Sustainable Agriculture The University of Sydney Faculty of Science, School of Life & Environmental Sciences Plant Breeding Institute The University of Sydney NSW 2006

Dr. Cumagun is a former professor of plant pathology at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in plant pathology, pest management, mycology, microbiology and science in agriculture. He has published more than 60 papers on studies dealing with fungal population genetics, disease resistance, biological control and mycotoxin research. He obtained his BSc in Agriculture and MSc in Plant Pathology from UPLB, and his Doctorate in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. He took up a pre-doctoral fellowship at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and postdoctoral research at Kobe University, Japan. He was visiting scientist at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Sao Paulo State University in Brazil and at the University of Goettingen in Germany. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Brigham Young University, Idaho in the USA and Plant Pathology at UPLB. Topic of the lecture Precision agriculture and geospatial techniques for sustainable disease control

Professor of Biotechnology and Plant Microbiology FST, UWI-St. Augustine Trinidad and Tobago

I graduated from the University of Madras in 2003 with a Ph.D., in Botany, with Plant Pathology as ancillary. In 2005 I joined the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (West Indies) as lecturer II. Over the years in Guyana, I continued my research, publishing my findings as well as attending various International Conferences to present papers on my research work. Currently I have so far published 63 papers and is the author of two books and two book chapters. In the years that I have been in Guyana, I have gone from Lecturer to Coordinator to Assistant Director to Professor and have been the Director of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus since 2014. For my work in academia and my contributions to the farming community in Guyana, I was the recipient of a special award in 2016 from the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, one of the most vibrant and productive Chambers of Commerce in Guyana. In May 2019 I was the only foreign national to be conferred a National Award by the people of Guyana when I received the Golden Arrow of Achievement from the President of Guyana. In August 2019 I was elected Vice President of the Guyana Chess Federation, I have been a member of the Berbice Chess Association since its launching in 2017. I also a member of CARISCIENCE, the Caribbean Food Crops Society and the Caribbean Academy of Science. Topic of the lecture Trichoderma harzianum, a multipotential organism for biological control of Plant Pathogens

Professor (Plant Pathology) University of Florida Room #2411, Fifield Hall 2550 Hull Road Gainesville, FL, 32611

Education & training: (i) Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, India, (ii) Post-doctoral work (IRRI, Philippines) Research activities are related to investigations on physiology and biochemistry of diseases of fungal, bacterial and viral origin and of pathogens at the ICAR - National (Central) Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India. Subsequently, with support from the Asian Rice Biotechnology Network Programme coordinated by the International Rice Research Institute, the Philippines and the Rockefeller Foundation expanded the studies on molecular plant pathology. The contributions from my laboratory include (i) increased understanding of the biochemical and physiological nature of plant defence against pathogen attack and growth regulation of tungro-affected rice plants, (ii) resulted in understanding bacterial blight and blast pathogen populations of Eastern India using molecular marker technology in combination with conventional phenotyping leading to identification of useful disease resistance (R) genes and their combinations, and (iii) early improvement (2004) of two of the most popular rice cultivars, Swarna and IR64 fortified with single or combinations of two to four bacterial blight R genes in different combinations using marker-assisted selection for the chosen R genes.

Emeritus Scientist and Ex-Dean 2-2-1144/23/1 (MCH 250), New Nallakunta Hyderabad – 500044, Telangana

Laetitia Willocquet is a plant disease epidemiologist working at INRA, France. She has worked in French and International Research Institutes, on a number of crops: rice diseases in tropical Asia; wheat, grapevine, strawberry, pea, and sunflower diseases in France; and bean and coffee diseases in Central America. She has worked on the analysis of the spatio-temporal development of epidemics, on the impact of plant diseases on crop yield, and on the use of quantitative resistance to manage plant diseases. These analyses involved experimental, statistical, and modelling approaches. Her current interest mainly focuses on wheat diseases, their variation over years and regions, and their impact on wheat production. Topic of the lecture Modelling yield losses from wheat rusts

INRA, UMR1248 AGIR 24 Chemin de Borde Rouge Auzeville, F-31326 Castanet-Tolosan Université Toulouse INPT, UMR AGIR, F-31029 Toulouse France Topic of the lecture The State of Global Plant Health and the Consequences of Global Changes

Arnab Pain is a Professor at KAUST, Saudi Arabia. He has joint appointments as a Distinguished Professor at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan and as a Visiting Professor of Genomics at the University of Oxford in UK. He obtained a B.Sc. (Ag) Hons. (B.C.K.V., West Bengal), a M.Sc. in Plant Pathology (IARI, New Delhi), and a Ph.D. in Microbiology (Cambridge University, UK). He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Oxford and a Senior Scientist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) in Cambridge before moving to KAUST. Prof. Pain’s expertise is on high-throughput sequencing and functional genomics of pathogens. Topic of the lecture Exploring the Genomic Landscapes of Rhizoctonia solani and Development of RsolaniDB - a Comprehensive Omic Resource for the Soilborne Basidiomycetous Phytopathogens

Director Centre for Horticultural Science Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation The University of Queensland St Lucia, 4072, QLD, Australia Topic of the lecture Next generation pesticides and application

Institute for Phytopathology Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26 D-35392 Giessen Germany Topic of the lecture Plant protection by double-stranded RNAs, a novel biofungicide for sustainable crop protection: mechanisms and activities

Professor, David Babatunde OLUFOLAJI; Is a lecturer/researcher – in Plant Pathology/Microbiology at The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA). Ondo State. He started his working career at the Unilorin Sugar Research Institute, University of Ilorin and he became Crop specialist in Sugarcane Pathology. He obtained his B.Sc (Agric. Biology) and M.Phil (Plant pathology) at University of Ibadan Nigeria (1975 and 1985). PhD in plant Pathology/ Microbiology from University of Ilorin.Nigeria (1989). He has served Nigerian Society for Plant Protection (NSPP) in several positions as: i. Vice President 2005-2010, President, 2011-2016, Editor-in-Chief, 2006-2016, Chairman Board of Trustees of NSPP, 2018 to date. He has travelled to all the world six continents for conferences and research collaborations. He belongs to several national and international scientific societies, among which are international society for plant pathology. He is an international Editor of Indian Journal of Phytopathology. Topic of the lecture Plant protection by double-stranded RNAs, a novel biofungicide for sustainable crop protection: mechanisms and activities

Prof. M. S. Reddy Founder & Chairman, Asian PGPR Society Consultant & Entrepreneur Auburn University Auburn, AL, USA

Director (I/C) ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, India

Head of Wheat Pathology International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT Apdo. Postal 6-641 Mexico DF 06600, Mexico Topic of the lecture Wheat blast-a threat to global wheat production

Bioprocess Engineering Department Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering Director Institute of Bioproduct Development (IBD), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) 81310 UTM, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Responsible for identifying Lr80 a new leaf rust resistance gene, 7th from India in the history of 74 years of designations. Sequenced the genome of three wheat rust pathogens, identified 55 new pathotypes of Puccinia on wheat, barley, developed 7 wheat varieties, pyramided and registered 56 rust resistant genetic stocks. In addition, he has vigorously pursued work on transcriptomics, MAS, DNA fingerprinting of rust pathotypes and host pathogen interaction at molecular level. The significant work done by him during the last 34 years has not only resulted in saving 5-10 million tonnes of wheat every year but also showed a way for successful control of wheat rusts through the intelligent use of resistance. Carrying on the legacy of stalwarts Drs. K.C. Mehta, R. Prasada and S. Nagarajan, he is heading wheat rust research in India successfully for the last 10 years. He is a fellow of 4 professional societies, NAAS fellow, recipient Gene stewardship award of Borlaug Global Rust Initiative and many other honours. Published more than 215 research papers, 86 of them are in high impact journals. Topic of the lecture Integration of resistance in wheat to counter fast evolving rusts