COVID-19 Pandemic: A plant health vision of a multidimensional problem

Abstract

Food and health are vital needs and legitimate human rights. Agriculture, exceeded by the Industrial Revolution and subsequent economic development has been fundamental to face the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 health contingency. Its essentiality, in contrast to most economic sectors’ shutdown, implied the uninterrupted agricultural production to guarantee worldwide food supply despite the farmer’s risk. Consequently, the Mexican agricultural segment had sustained growth with a global food production contribution of 59.2%, ranking 12th in the world in 2020. Phytosanitary activities have been fundamental in the production and global mobilization of healthy and safe food through safety programs and pest-free status certifications. The regional-crossboundary phytosanitary-international preventive model has strengths applicable to Public Health Systems whose current trend favors the patient-client curative approach in the hospital-outpatient environment. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a multidimensional problem that exceeds the Public Health Systems. The development of a preventive Pansystemic Model to address integral human health, involving causes and effects for this and future epidemics is urgent. The necessity of a new agricultural production paradigm that balances the growing global demand for healthy food, with sustainable and resilient ecosystem services with comprehensive human and environmental health indicators is also recognized. This work analyzes 31 contributions of the Mexican Journal of Phytopathology integrated into the Special Issue ‘COVID-19 and Plan Heath’, promoted internationally among producers, researchers, and academia to communicate the phytosanitary contribution to the society, with emphasis on Phytopathology, at the multidimensional COVID-19 solution.