Before COVID-19, massive human pandemics seemed relegated to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. No more.

So, could an equivalent happen in crops?

It already did in 1970 and 1971. That’s when southern corn leaf blight (SCLB) ravaged North American cornfields, destroying 15% of the corn crop and inflicting $1 billion in damage. ($6.61 billion in 2020 dollars), according to a May 5, 2017, paper written by H. Arnold Bruns, a USDA-ARS research plant physiologist based in Stoneville, Mississippi. In some cases, yield losses of 80% to 100% occurred.

@F3TechMD #agtech #agritech #agribusiness #f3tech

Source: Will coronavirus produce a moonshot for crops technology?