Following the declaration by the United Nations General Assembly of the International Day of Plant Health (IDPH), every 12th of May, the plant health community celebrates the importance of plant health by organizing events to raise awareness and to mobilize international communities. This year’s theme of the IDPH is plant biosecurity for food security.

In order to give visibility to national and international research and development activities carried out by plant health scientists and their organizations, the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), CABI, the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies of Bari (CIHEAM Bari), the Euphresco III network, the International Seed Federation (ISF) and the Plant Biosecurity Research Initiative (PBRI), are pleased to launch the fifth edition of the video contest ‘Plant Health TV - Promoting the importance of plant health research for food security’.

Guidelines on how to participate in the video contest and relevant documents are available from here.

The three finalist videos selected for the 2026 edition were: Florian Martini, with “Potato natural healthy perfume: Essential oils as sustainable management for late blight disease”; Shiron Thalagala, with “The spore hunter and the spore trap”; and Anjali Zaveri, with “Hidden threats in seeds: Advancing plant biosecurity through smarter diagnostics”.

Shiron Thalagala, PhD student at the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Plant Biosecurity and James Cook University (Australia), won the fifth edition of the International video contest with “The spore hunter and the spore trap”.

The winning video will be broadcast at International events organised for the celebration of the 2026 International Day of Plant Health and at the Plant Biosecurity Research Symposium 2026. The contest award also includes the opportunity for the winner to attend an international conference related to plant health, with transport, lodging, meals and conference fees covered.

Through this initiative, CIHEAM Bari confirms its commitment to supporting scientific communication, international cooperation and research capacity building in the field of plant health, with the shared objective of strengthening plant biosecurity and contributing to more resilient and sustainable food systems.