The National Symposium, ‘Plant Health 2019’, will be held at the Oak Ray Regency Hotel, Gatambe (off Deveni Rajasinghe Mawatha), Kandy, on August 30 from 9 a.m. The theme of the Symposium is ‘Ensuring safer plant produce for human consumption.’ This is the first symposium on Plant Health, and the second symposium concerned with Plant Pathology to be held in Sri Lanka. The symposium coincides with the United Nation’s declaration of Year 2020 as the ‘International year of Plant Health.’
The first plant disease of highly destructive nature in Ceylon was the coffee rust in 1867 which ravaged the then flourishing coffee cultivation in the hill country. The disease broke out on a new estate in Madulsima (now Badulla district, Uva Province) from where it spread rapidly over the entire coffee growing districts. This led to abandoning coffee cultivation in the highlands and the beginning of tea cultivation in Ceylon. The pioneering efforts by British scientists to study the coffee rust disease, though late, were highlights in the annals of Plant Pathology. This led to the birth of Plant Pathology in the country and the opening of the first chapter on plant disease investigations laying the foundation for Plant Pathology in the Tropics.
Mycology on the other hand started as a discipline in Ceylon much earlier, during the latter parts of the 18th century, by British scientists even before the coffee rust epidemic broke out. Studies continued steadily and over 2,100 fungi had been identified by 1950, of which 60% were described as new Ceylon species. In this process, 885 plant diseases affecting 340 plants were diagnosed by 1936, mainly due to the effort of mycologists. Plant Pathology and Mycology go hand in hand. Today, Plant Pathology and Mycology are practised in Sri Lanka as a science at a high level of professionalism.
Prof. Upul Dissanayake, Vice-Chancellor, University of Peradeniya will be the chief guest and Dr. W.M.W. Weerakoon, Director General, Department of Agriculture, the guest of honour. Prof Saman Seneweera, Director, National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy, is due to deliver the keynote address.
The Symposium is organized by the Sri Lanka Association for Mycology and Plant Pathology (SLAMPP). Founded in 2007, the SLAMPP acts as the mouthpiece of Plant Pathologists and Mycologists in the country. The main objective is to promote the advancement of knowledge in Mycology and Plant Pathology in the country. SLAMPP is affiliated to the International Society of Plant Pathology (ISPP), Asian Mycological Association (AMA) and the Asian Association of Societies of Plant Pathology (AASPP).