 A momentous occasion unfolded last week as the Plant Research and Development Division unveiled a ceremony to commemorate the highly anticipated International Day of Plant Health 2023, a global campaign aimed at raising awareness of the crucial role of plant health in ending world hunger, reducing poverty, and protecting the environment. The International Day of Plant Health addresses the urgent need to protect plant health and its impact on food security and the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. The event brought together various sector agencies and stakeholders to highlight the significance of plant health in achieving sustainable development goals. National Technical Specialist of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, IKA, Brent Theofill, in expressing his organization's commitment to promoting plant health and its significant impact on agriculture, highlighted the crucial role of research and collaboration in addressing the challenges faced by the agriculture sector. Healthy plants are key to the sustainable development of agriculture that is required to feed a growing population by 2050, but more immediately to ensuring that the desired level of self-sufficiency in food production, as well as the economic self-determination that comes from that, is maintained as a buffer against endogenous and exogenous threats. To keep plants healthy is a collective effort, where we all have a role to play, and that can be in promoting environmentally friendly practices such as integrated pest management, supporting international standards for SPS in trade to help prevent the introduction and spread of plant pests across the borders, the preservation and mainstreaming of traditional knowledge which is important to understand in the utility and the valorization of local plant species, as well as encouraging investment and resource mobilization so that we can take another maybe closer look at the inner workings of these elements of our paradise. Minister for Agriculture for Street's Food Security and Rural Development, Honorable Alfred Prosper, emphasized the vital role of plants in supporting life, ecosystem balance, food security and livelihood systems, while addressing threats posed by climate change, human activities and pests. Collaborating closely with the Pesticides and Chemical Control Board, Minister Prosper is actively working to ensure the availability of effective and environmentally sound solutions to safeguard plant health. According to FAO, 80% of our food is derived from plants, while 40% of what plants produce are lost as a result of pest and disease. 40%, just imagine you have 100 plants on a small plot of land and the likelihood is that 40 of them may be affected by diseases and pests. Managing pest and disease over the years have proven more challenging and costly as opposed to implementation of productive measures, protective measures sorry. For example, the common use of pesticides for pest control in agriculture over the years has had devastating effects on the environment and human health. The ministry continues to work closely with stake holders and international agencies in an effort to mitigate against the threats to plant health. The ceremony concluded with a call to action for all stakeholders to place plant health at the forefront of their agendas and unite in forging a path towards a resilient and sustainable future for generations to come. From the communications unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anicia Anton reporting.