The University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, in collaboration with the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE), France, successfully hosted the second annual international modelling and epidemiology summer school. This hybrid summer school, was held from 20-24 May on the Hatfield campus, being presented by Professors: Serge Savary (INRAE; France), Laetitia Willocquet (INRAE; France); Paul Esker (Pennsylvania State University, United States), and Neil McRoberts (University of California, Davis, United States) and Doctors: Federica Bove (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Sonam Sah (ICAR-NIASM, India), Manjari Singh and Giorgia Fedele (Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy).

The summer school aimed to enrich postgraduate students, academics, and researchers with modelling and epidemiology expertise; build scarce skills; enhance the knowledge platform; and expose participants to critical thinking and problem-solving skills in the field of plant disease epidemiology. Engaging in presentations, lively discussions, and hands-on training sessions were common features of this year’s edition of the summer school. The topics covered included spatial disease distribution and spread, epidemiology and host plant resistance, temporal disease progress, yield loss assessment and modelling, and a combination of plant disease, crop, and fungicide models for disease management. The participants also had hands-on sessions using R packages for plant disease epidemiology, and a seminar on scientific writing.

A total of 28 participants were recruited from the University of Pretoria, University of the Free State, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Seoul National University, South Korea, and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy. Modelling and plant disease epidemiology are important topics in the field of plant health as subjects intended for predicting crop yields and informing crop production amidst a plethora of biotic and abiotic factors that interact with crops. Therefore, it is important that schools are organized regularly to enrich and empower students and scientists with the necessary skills to handle plant health issues in the future.

The organizers of this course were Prof. Lise Korsten (Co-Director of the Department of Science and Innovation, Centre of Excellence in Food Security), Dr David Nsibo and Thabang Msimango (PhD Student). We thank the sponsors of the course: Grain SA, Bayer, and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.