The ability of national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) and national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) to address emerging pathogen and pest risks is key to national food security. Many countries globally are in the process of improving their systems.
We are advancing the R2M Plant Health Toolbox: tools for rapid risk assessment and mitigation planning for crop pathogens and pests at the national or regional level. These open-source tools can help countries develop their strategies for effective management of crop disease, as well as invasive pathogen/pest management, as building blocks in the development of a global surveillance and mitigation system for crop disease. We are developing ‘meta-tools’ in the sense that national programs can use these meta-tools to create their own tools for evaluating risk and mitigation strategies. Tools include the following:
An expert knowledge elicitation meta-tool for designing, implementing and analyzing knowledge related to diseases and pests (MetaQuestion, Fontan et al. 2025; Robledo et al. 2025)
Tools for habitat connectivity analysis to map locations that are candidate priorities for surveillance and management of host-specific pathogens and pests (geohabnet R package, Plex Sulá et al. 2025)
A framework for trade network analysis, to identify considerations for biosecurity
Impact network analysis (INA) for implementing scenario analysis to evaluate regional management options (INA R package, Garrett 2021)
Our team includes (in alphabetical order) Ashish Adhikari, Katie Alcock, Anudeep Reddy Banda, Sydney Barker, Manoj Choudhary, Berea Etherton, Robert Fontan, Taylor Johnson, Neha Kallamvalli, Krishna Keshav, Nattapol Kraisitudomsook, Ekaterina Krysova, David McDermott, Laurent Lagos Mendoza, Jessica Malosh, Richard Will McCoy, Romaric Mouafo Tchinda, Christopher Perez, Aaron Plex Sulá, Silas Rickards, Jacob Robledo, Eleni Stilian, Ted Stronkowsky IV, Yvette Zerry
R2M builds on projects including the following:
Andersen, K. F., C. E. Buddenhagen, P. Rachkara, R. Gibson, S. Kalule, D. Phillips, and K. A. Garrett. 2019. Modeling epidemics in seed systems and landscapes to guide management strategies: The case of sweetpotato in Northern Uganda. Phytopathology 109:1519-1532. [open access link]
Andersen Onofre, K. F., G. A. Forbes, J. Andrade-Piedra, C. E. Buddenhagen, J. C. Fulton, M. Gatto, Z. Khidesheli, R. Mdivani, Y. Xing, K. A. Garrett. 2021. An integrated seed health strategy and phytosanitary risk assessment: potato in the Republic of Georgia. Agricultural Systems 191:103144. [open access link]
Andersen Onofre, K. F., E. Delaquis, J. C. Newby, S. de Haan, T. C. Thi Le, N. Minato, J. P. Legg, W. J. Cuellar, R. I. Alcalá Briseño, and K. A. Garrett. 2025. Decision support for managing an invasive pathogen through efficient clean seed systems: Cassava mosaic disease in Southeast Asia. Agricultural Systems 229:104435. [open access link]
Buddenhagen*, C. E., J. F. Hernandez Nopsa*, K. F. Andersen, J. Andrade-Piedra, G. A. Forbes, P. Kromann, S. Thomas-Sharma, P. Useche, and K. A. Garrett. 2017. Epidemic network analysis for mitigation of invasive pathogens in seed systems: Potato in Ecuador. Phytopathology 107:1209-1218. [open access link]
Buddenhagen*, C. E., Y. Xing*, J. Andrade Piedra, G. A. Forbes, P. Kromann, I. Navarrete, S. Thomas-Sharma, R. A. Choudhury, K. F. Andersen, E. Schulte-Geldermann, B. A. Etherton, A. I. Plex Sulá, and K. A. Garrett. 2022. Where to invest project efforts for greater benefit: A framework for management performance mapping with examples for potato seed health. Phytopathology 112:1431-1443. [open access link]
Carvajal-Yepes, M., K. Cardwell, A. Nelson, K. A. Garrett, B. Giovani, D. G. O. Saunders, S. Kamoun, J. P. Legg, V. Verdier, J. Lessel, R. A. Neher, R. Day, P. Pardey, M. L. Gullino, A. R. Records, B. Bextine, J. E. Leach, S. Staiger, and J. Tohme. 2019. A global surveillance system for crop diseases. Science 364:1237-1239. [link]
Etherton, B. A., R. A. Choudhury, R. I. Alcalá-Briseño, Y. Xing, A. I. Plex Sulá, D. Carrillo, J. Wasielewski, L. Stelinski, K. A. Grogan, F. Ballen, T. Blare, J. Crane, and K. A. Garrett. 2023. Are avocados toast? A framework to analyze decision-making for emerging epidemics, applied to laurel wilt. Agricultural Systems 206:103615. [open access link]
Etherton, B. A., R. A. Choudhury, R. I. Alcalá Briseño, R. A. Mouafo-Tchinda, A. I. Plex Sulá, M. Choudhury, A. Adhikari, S. L. Lei, N. Kraisitudomsook, J. Robledo Buritica, V. A. Cerbaro, K. Ogero, C. M. Cox, S. P. Walsh, J. Andrade-Piedra, B. A. Omondi, I. Navarrete, M. A. McEwan, and K. A. Garrett. 2024. Disaster plant pathology: Smart solutions for threats to global plant health from natural and human-driven disasters. Phytopathology 114:855-868. [open access link].
Etherton, B. A., A. I. Plex Sulá, R. A. Mouafo-Tchinda, R. Kakuhenzire, H. A. Kassaye, F. Asfaw, V. S. Kosmakos, R. W. McCoy, Y. Xing, J. Yao, K. Sharma, and K. A. Garrett. 2025. Translating Ethiopian potato seed networks: identifying strategic intervention points for managing bacterial wilt and other diseases. Agricultural Systems 222:104167. [open access link]
Fontan, R., C. M. Perez, A. Adhikari, R. A. Mouafo-Tchinda, A. I. Plex Sulá, J. Robledo, B. A. Etherton, M. Choudhary, M. A. Sarwar, Z. Afzal Naveed and K. A. Garrett. 2025. MetaQuestion: A web application for expert knowledge elicitation addressing plant health and applied plant ecology. arXiv 2509.19393 [open access link]
Garrett, K. A. 2021. Impact network analysis and the INA R package: Decision support for regional management interventions. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12:1634-1647. [open access link]
Garrett, K. A., D. P. Bebber, B. A. Etherton, K. M. Gold, A. I. Plex Sulá, and M. G. Selvaraj. 2022. Climate change effects on pathogen emergence: artificial intelligence to translate big data for mitigation. Annual Review of Phytopathology 60:357-378. [open access link]
Hernandez Nopsa, J. F., G. J. Daglish, D. W. Hagstrum, J. F. Leslie, T. W. Phillips, C. Scoglio, S. Thomas-Sharma, G. H. Walter, and K. A. Garrett. 2015. Ecological networks in stored grain: identifying key nodes for emerging pests and mycotoxins in postharvest networks. BioScience 65:985-1002. [open access link]
Keshav, K., A. I. Plex Sulá, K. A. Garrett. 2025. geohabnet: Analysis of habitat connectivity. R package version 2.2, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=geohabnet.
Margosian, M. L., K. A. Garrett, J. M. S. Hutchinson, and K. A. With. 2009. Connectivity of the American agricultural landscape: Assessing the national risk of crop pest and disease spread. BioScience 59:141-151. [open access link]
Mouafo-Tchinda, R., B. A. Etherton, A. I. Plex Sulá, J. Andrade-Piedra, K. Ogero, B. A. Omondi, M. McEwan, P. Tene Tayo, D. Harahagazwe, M. Cherinet, S. Gebeyehu, L. Sperling, and K. A. Garrett. 2024. Pathogen and pest risks to vegetatively propagated crops in humanitarian contexts: Toward a national plant health risk analysis for Cameroon and Ethiopia. bioRxiv 2024.02.12.580019 [open access link]
Mouafo-Tchinda, R. A., A. I. Plex Sulá, B. A. Etherton, J. S. Okonya, G. V. Nakato, Y. Xing, J. Robledo, A. Adhikari, G. Blomme, D. Kantungeko, A. Nduwayezu, J. Kreuze, J. Kroschel, J. P. Legg, and K. A. Garrett. 2025. Pathogen and pest communities in food security crops across climate gradients: Anticipating future challenges in the highland tropics. bioRxiv 2024.02.12.580019 [open access link]
Nduwimana, I., S. Sylla, Y. Xing, A. Simbare, C. Niyongere , K. A. Garrett, B. A. Omondi. 2022. Banana seed exchange systems in Burundi – linking formal and informal systems. Outlook on Agriculture 51:334-348. [open access link]
Plex Sulá, A. I., V. De Col, B. A. Etherton, Y. Xing, A. Agarwal, L. Ramić, E. Bonaiuti, M. Friedmann, C. Proietti, G. Thiele, and K. A. Garrett. 2024. What traits of collaboration networks are associated with project success? The case of two CGIAR agricultural research programs for development. Agricultural Systems 219:104013. [open access link]
Plex Sulá, A. I., K. Keshav, A. Adhikari, R. A. Mouafo-Tchinda, J. Robledo, S. N. Shah, and K. A. Garrett. 2025. geohabnet: An R package for mapping habitat connectivity for biosecurity and conservation. arXiv 2510.24955. [open access link]
Plex Sulá, A. I., M. A. Sarwar, S. Ali, N. Qureshi, R. Maqbool, K. Saleem, P. K. Singh, Z. Ali, K. A. Garrett, and Z. A. Naveed. 2025. Wheat diseases and pests in Pakistan: a nationwide assessment. agriRxiv 20250496487. [open access link]
Robledo, J.*, A. I. Plex Sulá*, L. G. Jaworski, R. A. Mouafo-Tchinda, K. F. Andersen Onofre, S. Thomas-Sharma, and K. A. Garrett. 2025. Expert knowledge elicitation: Accessing the big data in experts’ brains. Phytopathology 115:1245-1259. [open access link]
Sanatkar, M. R., C. Scoglio, B. Natarajan, S. Isard, and K. A. Garrett. 2015. History, epidemic evolution, and model burn-in for a network of annual invasion: Soybean rust. Phytopathology 105:947-955. [open access link]
Sutrave, S., C. Scoglio, S. A. Isard, J. M. S. Hutchinson, and K. A. Garrett. 2012. Identifying highly connected counties compensates for resource limitations when evaluating national spread of an invasive pathogen. PLOS ONE 7:e37793. [open access link]
Thomas-Sharma, S., J. Andrade-Piedra, M. Carvajal Yepes, J. Hernandez Nopsa, M. Jeger, R. Jones, P. Kromann, J. Legg, J. Yuen, G. A. Forbes, and K. A. Garrett. 2017. A risk assessment framework for seed degeneration: Informing an integrated seed health strategy for vegetatively-propagated crops. Phytopathology 107:1123-1135. [open access link] [Interactive interface for exploring model behavior]
Xing*, Y., J. Hernandez Nopsa*, K. F. Andersen, J. Andrade-Piedra, F. Beed, G. Blomme, M. Carvajal Yepes, D. Coyne, W. Cuellar, G. Forbes, J. Kreuze, J. Kroschel, L. Kumar, J. Legg, M. Parker, E. Schulte-Geldermann, K. Sharma, and K. A. Garrett. 2020. Global cropland connectivity: A risk factor for invasion and saturation by emerging pathogens and pests. BioScience 70:744-758. [open access link]