Introduction

In February 2021, at the closing call for the MJP Special Issue: ‘COVID-19 and Plant Health’, 106.8 million positive cases to SARS-CoV-2 and 2.4 million deaths in three epidemic waves were reported worldwide (^{WHO, 2021}). In Mexico, there were 1.94 million positive cases and 166.7 thousand deaths in two waves (SSa, 2021). In November, at the end of the Special Issue edition, 252.4 million positive individuals and 5.08 million deaths were reported worldwide. Mexico registered 3.8 million cases and 290.6 thousand deaths. Wich means an increase of 42.3 and 51.1% incidence globally and in Mexico, respectively, despite intensive global vaccination with 3.171 million people ‘immunized’ in approximately one year. Mexico started its vaccination program on December 24, 2020, totaling 132.54 million doses applied. In this context, it is clear that the pandemic is not under control and that Health Systems depend on vaccination as the center of their mitigation strategies despite its evident limitation (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}). Currently, Europe is experiencing its fourth epidemic wave with severe restrictions. These include a ‘health passport’ (vaccination certificate with full vaccination schedule), compulsory immunization of public employees, and generalized or forced confinement for non-vaccinated persons in response to Omicron, the fifth variant with global prevalence and high transmission capacity. Unlike the first and second epidemic waves, intense social mobilizations have arisen to reject restrictive impositions, evidencing the limited risk management capacity of health authorities and the exhaustion of society, which demands effective and innovative measures (^{La Jornada, 2021a}).

Faced with this scenario, a systemic-global health model is required to confront a pandemic process that eludes local or territorial solutions. High costly and bureaucratic international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Pan American Health Organization, have the opportunity to redesign their current management policy towards a Pansystemic Model that allows to articulate regional models under a new public health paradigm with a real emphasis on prevention. This model should operate with robust Epidemiological Surveillance Systems based on digital and genomic technology, and active community involvement.

COVID-19 has evidenced the collapse of the global health system and the failure to generate comprehensive mitigation proposals based on prevention supported by scientific research. This is a result of historical and sustained neglect of health as a fundamental right (^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ^{Frenk, 2003}). Instead, health, as a patient-disease business strategy, underlies the personalized treatment of diseases (COVID-19 among them). Therefore, the interests of pharmaceutical consortiums and geopolitical views threaten humanity equality by promoting exclusion and discriminatory schemes already evidenced with the inequitable distribution of vaccines in the world (^{Carbajal, 2022}; ^{Afp, 2021b}; ^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴; PAHO, 2008; ^{Cabello, 2001}).

The COVID-19 health crisis has impacted all aspects inherent to life and human activities. Agriculture, declared as an essential activity to face this crisis, has maintained food production in contrast to the general slowdown in 2020, and differentiated in 2021, of other economic, socio-cultural, and educational sectors. In this adverse situation, the Mexican Journal of Phytopathology (MJP), endorsed by the Mexican Society of Plant Pathology (MSP), within the scope of its mission focused on crop health, proposed the Special Issue MJP ‘COVID-19 and Plant Health’ to acknowledge all actors that make possible food production in rural areas with limited health services, and in the case of field workers and small producers, without medical insurance. The MJP international call was open and by invitation. However, contributions from Mexico prevailed. The objective was to document thoughts, experiences, and results of phytosanitary research in the context of the active epidemic process of COVID-19. The MJP also wished to contribute with a systemic epidemic analyses, reviews on microbiological relationships, and the rational use of native germplasm in sustainable food production, emphasizing the need for a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach in the solution to the health crisis caused by COVID-19 and other potential zoonotic diseases highly dependent on an anthropogenic, agroecological and climatic balance (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Words cloud sized by their use in texts of 31 contributions categorized in Letters to the Editor, Reviews, Scientific Reviews and Scientific Notes included in the Special Issue ‘COVID-19 and Plant Health’ of the Mexican Journal of Phytopathology 2021, Vol. 39(4). 

COVID-19: the virus, disease and epidemiology

COVID-19 in human health. The section COVID-19: The virus, disease, and epidemiology, includes contributions addressing the genomic and pathogenic capabilities of SARS-CoV-2 (^{Garcia-Ruizet al., 2021}); implication of chronic diseases in the occurrence of COVID-19 in Mexican youth (^{Alvarez-Maya et al., 2021}); a retrospective comparative analysis between plant and human epidemics as an analytical framework for COVID-19 (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}); risk of contamination in processed and semi-processed foods from handling in the packaging (^{Vargas-Arispuroet al., 2021}); potential sanitization strategies with chlorine and citrus extract-based products (^{Muñoz-Castellanoset al., 2021}; ^{Schneegans-Vallejoet al., 2021}); reflections on the implications of COVID-19 in the global evolution of plant health (^{Gutiérrez-Samperio, 2021}); and the cultural, social, and productive significance from the perspective of an 85-year-old corn and asparagus producer, Don Bernardino (^{Cruces-Pedraza, 2021}). The main conclusions are integrated into Table 1. The conceptual and analytical framework of these contributions is presented below.

Coronavirus diversity. Since the emergence of diseases of zoonotic origin, such as SARS (2003) and MERS (2012), studies of coronavirus diversity in bats and other animals have been of great interest as a preventive strategy (^{Garcia-Ruizet al., 2021}). The importance of these studies for human health is unquestionable, due to the adaptability and variability of the viral agent in the host, as can be inferred from the population structure of variants with a high sequential and regional prevalence that has emerged during the pandemic:Alpha, Beta, Delta, Eta, Epsilon, Kappa, Gamma, Lambda, Lota, Mu, Delta, andOmicron.Deltabeing the most widely distributed variant andOmicron, officially reported on November 24, 2021, the most recent (^{WHO, 2021}; ^{Mora-Aguileraet al., 2021}; www.gisaid.org). This has led to the creation or strengthening of national and international programs for viral genomics research (Table 1; Figure 2A). However, public investment in research and the practical applicability in the development of drugs and vaccines have culminated in the private use of patents with the consequent asymmetry in global immunization to the detriment of countries without the capacity to purchase vaccines (^{Carbajal, 2022}).

Additionally, web platforms have been developed that allow the traceability of genetic sequences, variants, and population lineage dynamics. This is possible by contributions of complete and partial sequences of the viral genome by research and health entities in countries with infrastructure and resources for this purpose. As a result, SARS-CoV-2 genomic information is among the most complete representing an extraordinary effort of scientific collaboration. For example, GISAID has approximately 4 million sequences of the virus, of which GB contributes more than 1 million (^{UKHSA and DHSC, 2021}). Its free availability has allowed etiological, epidemiological, clinical, pathogenic, and immunological research, with emphasis on vaccine developments (^{Garcia-Ruizet al., 2021}; ^{Mora-Aguileraet al., 2022}). Likewise, phylogenic and phylogeographic dynamics and a genomic diversity index can be consulted on GISAID (Figure 2A). However, these models emphasize the pathogen, omitting the epidemiological system (e.g., host, environment, etc.), which is fundamental for understanding epidemics, and lack epidemiological risk communication strategies. Public data information requires the release of official bulletins associated with these websites to avoid misinformation and deficient interpretative management. The emergence and spread of theOmicronvariant is an example of incorrect risk communication. This includes WHO, the United Nations (UN) lead agency for the pandemic management of COVID-19 (https://www.who.int/es).

Pandemic or syndemic? COVID-19 disease is a pandemic process due to the occurrence of a synchronous contagion process worldwide (Figure 2A, B) (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}), however, it has been considered a syndemic or infectious disease that interacts with other clinical, social, and behavioral factors (^{BBC News, 2020}). This concept was addressed in the MJP Special Issue by ^{Samaniego-Gaxiola (2021}), in the context of soil health for healthy and sustainable food production. In one of its meanings, a syndemic is a synergy of epidemics that occur simultaneously in time and space, interact, and have common causal mechanisms (^{Mendenhall et al., 2017}). Therefore, understanding clinically and epidemiologically the effect of SARS-CoV-2 should include a systemic analysis of its interaction with chronic noncommunicable diseases and comorbidities.

Mexico has at least three epidemics in coexistence with COVID-19: diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. However, there are other factors that the pandemic has evidenced as determinants of the pathogenic aggressiveness of SARS-CoV-2, for example, malnutrition, environmental pollution, insalubrity, demography, urban overcrowding, labor precariousness, etc., products of socioeconomic inequalities (^{Horton, 2020}). However, human folly in its interaction with nature also plays a fundamental role. A comprehensive retrospective analysis of human and cultivated plant pandemics concluded that globally:‘The SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic evidenced the deterioration of a rational epidemiological framework; absence of Surveillance Systems that articulate clinical and viral variants detection with traceability of community risks, enhanced with genomic and digital technology; the weakening of the Public Health System; and the absence of a Pansystemic Model integrating regional preventive models’(^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}).

Sanitary management. During the first and second pandemic waves of 2020, the gaps, deterioration, and dismantling of governmental Health Systems, even in developed countries (e.g., USA, UK, France), and the importance of reducing socioeconomic inequalities and strengthening preventive medicine became evident (^{González-Salgadoet al., 2021}; ^{Martín-Morenoet al., 2021}). WHO has been criticized for its slow responsiveness and bureaucratization of international crisis management. It even resulted in the temporary funding suspension and the exit of the USA from the countries subscribed to the WHO in July 2020 (^{BBC News, 2020}). As this contribution goes to edition, COVID-19 mitigation efforts continue under the conventional clinical model based on the search for curative drugs (i.e., antivirals) and the promotion of extensive vaccination programs (but limited to countries that can afford them) with strong influence from the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, economic interests have been privileged overpreventionas a systemic health model (^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴). The new B.1.1.529 variant reported in South Africa, calledOmicronby the WHO, exhibits 50 mutations in its genome, which worries specialists for being potentially more contagious. Initial data show that in less than 15 days approximately 445 cases have been reported worldwide (^{Fernández, 2021}), while in South Africa it represents 84% of incidence. Likewise, the changes in the gene associated with the protein of the spicule (S) may cause efficiency loss in current vaccines against COVID-19 (^{Afp, 2021a}). However, in viruses, obligate parasites dependent on a living host, the evolutionary process towards a reduction of aggressiveness by survival (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}), does not suggest thatOmicroncould be more pathogenic than previous variants includingDelta.

Recently, Anthony Fauci, a consultant epidemiologist to the USA government, stated that: ‘Although the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the United States, early indications are that it may be less dangerous than Delta’ (^{Johnson, 2021}). However, the constant mutation of the virus, in addition of being considered in the development of mitigation strategies and clinical treatments (^{Garcia-Ruiz et al., 2021}), should be integrated as an essential risk factor in epidemiological models including the spatiotemporal forecasting of variants associated with prevalence and virulence. For example, Eta was a variant rapidly replaced by other dominant variants. Mu and Lambda were variants associated with specific regions (i.e., South America) with longer periods but equally replaced by others of greater dispersion such as Delta (^{Hodcroft, 2021}).

Health and food quality. On the other hand, the deterioration of population health due to non-infectious diseases, particularly in Mexico, underlies the consumption style disrupted by the food industry. In one decade (80’s) the percentage of overweight and obese people grew 32.2%, currently estimated at 70% (Rivera et al., 2018). The metabolic and cardiovascular diseases constitute risk factors to SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality (^{Alvarez-Maya et al., 2021}; ^{Garcia-Ruiz et al., 2021}). This is the context of the contribution of Alvarez-Maya et al. (2021), who analyzed the epidemiological behavior of the young Mexican cohort in the first epidemic wave. The authors justify the food labeling initiative that had been previously rejected by legislative bodies (^{Reyes, 2019}). Undoubtedly, the pandemic contributed to the official publication on November 8, 2019, of the decree that reforms the General Health Law on overweight, obesity and labeling of food and non-alcoholic beverages, approved by Mexican Congress on October 22.

Within the framework of this reform, the Food and Beverage Front Labeling System (SEFAB), developed by the National Institute of Public Health (INSP, in Spanish), was implemented, which resulted in the update of the Mexican Official Norm NOM-051-SCFI/SSA1-2010 and its mandatory implementation on October 1, 2020, through three phases to be carried out between 2020-2025. This strategy, among other elements, stipulates and specifies:1). That the right to health protection should have among its purposes theprevention of diseases;2). In terms of school hygiene, it is the responsibility of health authorities to establish actions that promote healthy and nutritious food and physical activity;3). That health promotion integrates nutritious food, physical activity, and nutrition;4). Emphasizing that programs will propose actions to reduce malnutrition and promote the consumption of foods adequate to the population’s nutritional needs;5). Avoid other elements that represent a potential health risk. Therefore, essentially these actions seek to decrease the epidemic intensity of obesity, as a chronic disease, reduce its effect on other non-infectious diseases, and reduce the risk of infection and mortality by COVID-19 (^{Álvarez-Mayaet al., 2021}).

Urban food. The interest in quality food and its timely supply to densely populated urban areas, as the disruption consequence of the supply chains caused by COVID-19, has been proposed in different political frameworks, but still without effects on public policy. The perspective of urban agriculture in food safety and quality is viable for populated cities. These are environments where infectious agents have had the highest contagion rates in historical epidemics (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez 2021}). Agricultural production in Mexico City, in the first infectious stage of COVID-19, evidenced its resilience despite a higher risk of contagion for workers than in the rural environments (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{Reyes-Tenaet al., 2021}; ^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}; ^{Castañeda-Cabreraet al., 2021}). Additionally, the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 spread by food contaminated, mainly fresh food, was investigated due to the association of the first positive case with a food market in Wuhan, China. ^{Vargas-Arispuroet al. (2021}) reviewed the scientific evidence and concluded that it is a low risk associated with agricultural products, mainly due to adherence to Good Production and Packaging Practices. However, the passive presence of the virus is widely documented for up to 2-3 days depending on the type of material exposed to human contact. This makes possible the contamination of food packaging by handling in transport and selling points. Reviews of the use of chlorine and citrus-based products as sanitizers to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 suggest a cost-effective and low environmental impact option (^{Muñoz-Castellanoset al., 2021}; ^{Schneegans-Vallejoet al., 2021}).

Vaccination as a mitigation alternative. Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 were developed at an unprecedented research speed (12 months after the outbreak), mainly supported by government funds. This approach, implemented from December 2020, constitutes the current mitigation strategy against the health crisis, helping to decrease the mortality risk by 90%, restore labor and social activity, and alleviate losses in all sectors of the economy. As a reference, vaccines against the bacteria causing the Black Death and Cholera took 551 and 33 years, respectively, after the epidemic outbreaks after the Renaissance (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}). However, access to vaccines for many low-income countries remains restricted. Like those in the Caribbean Basin and the African continent, due to the cost of acquisition, storage, and distribution. In addition, the G7 countries have amassed up to 75% of the doses produced, despite exceeding their immediate needs. The USA wasted more than 15 million doses due to the rejection of vaccination by broad sectors of society, a situation repeated in several developed countries (^{Afp, 2021b}).

Currently, WHO has approved, under the criterion of‘emergency use’, Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford, Janssen, Moderna, and Sinopharm vaccines. Others are still under development or in evaluation by international regulatory agencies. Geopolitical, protectionist, or bureaucratic management has been denounced by countries such as China and Russia, whose vaccines have been the most delayed in their approval. On the other hand, national competent agencies have authorized CanSino, Sputnik V, Soberana 02, and Soberana Plus against COVID-19 in specific countries. Cuba is a notorious case being the only country in Latin America that has developed and applied its vaccines, Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus, and Abdala, despite the economic and technological embargo imposed by the USA. Currently, 82% of the Cuban population is vaccinated with the required two doses (^{Ritchieet al., 2021}). Mexico, through the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris, in Spanish), recently approved Abdala to complement its vaccination program. In this country, the vaccination policy has been successful due to population acceptance and national coverage (^{Cruz, 2021}).

Health model crisis. The global requirement of vaccines, as the first front of mitigation against SARS-CoV-2, evidenced the global crisis of Health Systems, and weak public medical research, consequently, the reluctance of prevention in favor of the curative principle promoted by the pharmaceutical industry and educative models (^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴; PAHO, 2008; ^{Frenk, 2003}; ^{Cabello, 2001}). Mexico, once a world leader in vaccines production and pathogen eradication (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}), has invested more than US$ 832.7 million through May 2021 in vaccine procurement (^{Expansión, 2021}). The oligopoly of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine manufacturers could earn up to US$ 190 billion in sales during 2021. Only nine pharmaceutical companies, including US-based Pfizer and Moderna, along with China’s Sinovac, Biotech and Sinopharm will benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine market (^{Paton, 2021}). Notably, before the pandemic, three companies controlled the international market (^{Carbajal, 2022}).

The worldwide value of the vaccine market allowed the pharmaceutical industry to increase its stock market value after the pandemic process and strengthen its monopoly structure (^{Carbajal, 2022}). Consequently, supported by their respective countries, pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to release patents, requested by WHO and several countries, preventing mass vaccination with a humanistic and inclusive approach. This strategy is recognized by WHO and health experts as the only viable and rational strategy to manage the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Prolonging the epidemic increases the risk of the emergence of virus variants with new parasitic and clinical outcomes, and the potential loss of vaccines efficacy. For example, forOmicronit is anticipated that efficiency may decrease due to the number of mutations in its genome. WHO recently announced a 40% loss of vaccine effectiveness due tothe Deltavariant (^{Afp and Reuters, 2021}). This corporate reticence is paradoxical considering that the USA, UK, and other countries invested public resources of US$ 8.6 billion for the generation of vaccines (^{Carbajal, 2022}), and that SARS-CoV-2 genomic information has come mainly from public research institutions (www.gisaid.org). However, this commercial vision is congruent with the gradual abandonment of thepreventionapproach of Public Health Systems and the adoption ofcure, and therefore ofhealthas a business model (^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴; PAHO; 2008; ^{Frenk, 2003}; ^{Cabello, 2001}). The genomic and functional basis of vaccines (^{Garcia-Ruizet al., 2021}), and their historical analysis from the scientific, epidemiological, and Health Systems perspective (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}) are addressed in the MJP Special Issue.

COVID-19 and agrofood security

Agriculture and food production. Agriculture was declared an essential activity in Mexico, and other countries, in the containment framework of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic mitigation strategies. This implied productive continuity for the world food supply. Consequently, the agricultural sector was the only one that maintained positive growth concerning other economic sectors. However, this implied a health risk for workers in this sector. This aspect and the strategies implemented to mitigate them are analyzed in another section. The agricultural contribution to national GDP was addressed with 2020 and partially from 2021 productive data (^{Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021}). The MJP Special Issue includes four contributions regarding the importance of innovating production through the use of native resources to ensure productive sustainability with minimum environmental impact. The focus was to reduce dependence on foreign agricultural supplies provided by international consortiums. The dependence effect on international supplies is evidenced by the COVID-19 crisis, as it has a direct impact on global production and supply chains. International consortiums produce supplies of high agricultural inputs, such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and hybrid and varieties seeds, some produced by transgenic technology. These consortiums, such as Bayer and Pfizer, may also have commercial divisions for the human health sector. A proposal to encourage research on native plant germplasm was addressed with tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) as a study case (^{Cortez-Madrigalet al., 2021}). In addition, biotechnological use of microbiological resources to enhance soil nutrient availability and plant nutrient uptake; and the potential as control agents, were discussed by authors from Mexican leading public research centers (^{Zelaya-Molinaet al., 2021}; ^{Samaniego-Gaxiola 2021}; ^{Ayala-Zepedaet al., 2021}).

Figure 2 Public web platforms developed for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. A. Phylogeny, phylogeography and virus diversity generated by GISAD (www.gisaid.org). B. COVID-19 pandemic traceability reported from January to October 2021 by John Hopkins University, USA (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html). Number (x1000) of positive cases by WHO regions. C. Number of death cases by regions. 

Agriculture transcendence. The current consumer society, abruptly interrupted by widespread social confinement and distancing as mitigation strategies against COVID-19, evidenced the intricate network of human dependencies largely induced as essential material needs. However, it was evident that food and health are the true fundamental rights of life. Agriculture, underestimated since the Industrial Revolution as an engine of economic and financial development on a large scale, patented its civilizing condition and the motherhood of human culture. The great centers of agricultural origin were the base of thedemos, the evolution of language (^{Goettsch et al., 2021}), and the primordium of scientific thoughts. The COVID-19 health crisis demands a profound review of agriculture as a cultural, tangible, and intangible heritage of humanity, a guarantor of well-being, and a promoter of nation’s and people’s stability. But it also calls for a review of intensive and extensive production models with a strong impact on the quality and food safety, productive assets, agroecosystemic resources, and the environment. Agriculture has been questioned for its direct and indirect effect on the carbon footprint (^{Sui and Wenquiang, 2021}). In addition, it has been postulated that Agriculture and urbanization have caused deforestation, enhancing the origin of zoonotic diseases (^{Lal, 2020}). A recent paper reports that 35% of wild plants, including emblematic crops such as coffee, avocado, and cocoa, are threatened with extinction due to the conversion of natural habitats for human use. The main causes included the abandonment of traditional agricultural methods by extensive mechanization, widespread use of herbicides and pesticides, invasive species and pests, as well as contamination by genetically modified crops, overharvesting, and logging (^{Goettschet al., 2021}).

Sustainable and resilient agriculture. Agriculture lied on natural resources with high resilience and ecosystemic contributions. The CO₂ sequestration and its conversion into food is a fundamental agricultural contribution to thecarbohydrate footprint(a positive term proposed for conversion of CO₂). Its contribution to the biogeochemical cycles is highly dynamic and effective. Agriculture can readily be integrated into a systemic and sustainable environmental model with greater efficiency than other sectors of the economy. These sectors, however, need to be incorporated into this model based on a deep review that includes the balance between real needs and consumption. The paradox is the growing demand for food worldwide. Therefore, the essential nature of agriculture transcends the current COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, agricultural innovation, within an environmental and productive framework, must be the perspective to be promoted. However, it is necessary to recognize countries’ productive particularities and the need for public policies that cut across institutions and actors of the productive sector. Similarly, FAO’s‘Zero Hunger’, and the UN’s‘Sustainable Development’with horizons to 2030, international policies must articulate their traditional programmatic schemes with aggressive and de-bureaucratizing operational and financial strategies (UN, 2015). Otherwise, the following UN resolution will be a utopia:‘We are resolved to end poverty and hunger worldwide by 2030, to combat inequalities within and among countries, to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies, to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources’.

The essentiality of Agriculture implied higher clinical risks to COVID-19, albeit with lower infection rates, in the rural population. Preliminary data on SARS-CoV-2 case fatality in rural areas was higher (12.4%) than in urban areas (8.4%) (^{Rodriguez, 2021}). The explanation is the infrastructure, human resources, and accessibility limitations to primary and secondary health services. The risk of contagion among agricultural workers affected the different productive stages and caused a contraction of local markets, mainly supply centers in urban areas (^{Cruces-Pedraza, 2021}; ^{Castañeda-Cabreraet al., 2021}; ^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}; ^{Reyes-Tenaet al., 2021}). However, it is necessary to emphasize that Mexican agricultural policies embraced neoliberalism in the 1980s. It implied gradual elimination or privatization of essential organizations such as FERTIMEX, ANSA, CONAFRUT, INMECAFE, etc. With the paradigm of modernizing the Mexican economy (i.e., privatization), the agriculture sector was relegated under the assumption that importation was cheaper than production. Currently, this vision has been partially reversed, essentially due to the initiative of the productive sector. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that only those countries with a solid primary sector economy may guarantee food security and strategies that made great sense facing the pandemic.

Migrants and rural remittances. It is paradoxical that migrants, who began their territorial displacement precisely because of neoliberal policies detrimental to farming, and due to the long relinquishment of agricultural structural strategies, sent record remittances that impacted mainly in Mexican rural areas (^{Rivas-Valencia et al., 2021}). Conversely, in the cities, employment was canceled or precarious. The funneling of money overseas increased. The poor ‘injecting’ and the rich ‘exporting’ capitals. Thus, facing the COVID-19 crisis, it was the rural sector, through production and remittances, which contributed to its mitigation effect on the Mexican economy (Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021). In 2020, remittances from Mexicans (mainly from the USA) reached an historical maximum equivalent to 3.8% of GDP, which represented US$ 40,606.60 million, 11.4% higher than in 2019. Similarly, as of September 2021, remittances worth US$ 37,300.00 million, a historical record comparable to 2020 (^{Carbajal, 2021}).

Global food production. On a global scale, agrofood trade was US$66.703 billion, of which 59.2% corresponded to Mexican sales (^{Villalobos-Arámbula, 2021}). At the end of 2020, agricultural and fisheries export value was the highest in 28 years since 1993 (^{SIAP, 2021}; ^{Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021}) (Figure 3). The sector dynamism placed Mexico as the 12th largest agricultural producer and 3rd in Latin America, esteeming a positive balance in 2020 (^{SIAP, 2021}). At this writing close, Mexico’s GDP stands at MX$ 17’841,981 million (+4.6%) with an employment and consumption recovery close to pre-pandemic conditions. The primary sector contribution was MX$ 617,130 million (^{INEGI, 2021}). However, caution of the Mexican economy’s recovery prevails as in the rest of the world. Full economic reactivation may depend on the progress of vaccination programs against SARS-CoV-2.

Basic food basket value. Regarding the impact of COVID-19 on food value, in terms of the basic food basket in Mexico, measured through the National Consumer Price Index (INPC, in Spanish) remained relatively stable (105.9, 2019 vs. 116.9, 2021) (^{BANXICO, 2021}), with some exceptions in 2020 of products that decreased in price due to consumption contraction, distribution channels reduction, partial closure of supply centers and local markets (^{Reyes-Tenaet al., 2021}). Specifically, the prices of agricultural products of the basic food basket increased from MX$ 454.9 in 2019 to 535.4 in November 2021 (^{INEGI, 2021}), implying an average increase of 15.3%. However, these increases contrast with the disproportionate global increases in computer inputs, digital services, and medicines under the supply-demand premise, not compatible with an international health crisis. On the other hand, in agricultural production, the commodities’ increased value in international markets excludes the farmer from the benefits transferred to the intermediaries of distribution chains, traders, and packers. The coffee commodity, with an increase of 103% in 2021, illustrates this fact (^{Hernández, 2022}; ^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}). This commercial trend must be remedied under a sustainable and ‘fair’ production approach to the environment. But also fair for farmers and the labor producing and harvesting the food.

Source: ^{Rivas-Valencia et al., 2021}.

Figure 3 Mexican agricultural products with the highest export values in 2020. Units in millions of dollars. Data source: ^{SIAP, (2021)}.  

Conservation of productive resources. It is possible to promote agriculture based on agroecosystem services optimization, conservation of productive resources, use of native germplasm, preservation of farming knowledge, and return of productive value to the producer (^{Ayala-Zepeda et al., 2021}; Cortéz-Madrigal et al., 2021; ^{Samaniego-Gaxiola, 2021}; ^{Zelaya-Molina et al., 2021}). However, in Mexican rural areas, as in other countries, the agricultural production exhibits great diversity in terms of technology, culture and social organization. Simplifying to one production model is not feasible. A single model may not be in agreement with regional biotic and abiotic complexity and to the specific production unit conditions. Agriculture cannot be conceived as bio-factories with standardized and seasonally reproducible processes. It is necessary to differentiate, for example, technified production systems from traditional, subsistence or organic systems, which have less impact on soil and plant microbial systems.

Technified production systems (i.e., generally extensive monocultures of commercial varieties, use of fertilizers, agrochemicals, and costly irrigation systems, etc.) can have a strong impact on productive (i.e., soil, water, varieties) and environmental resources. But they are also the biggest food producing units. Therefore, the great agricultural challenge is to find a balance between systems created to meet the world’s great food needs, the preservation of productive resources, and minimum environment impact. But this only possible with a comprehensive public policies framework including research, and development and technological innovation (R + D + I).

The importance of a political-scientific framework is illustrated by the gradual elimination, for almost two decades, of methyl bromide from world agriculture (^{SISSAO, 2014}), and the current process to eliminate glyphosate from Mexican agriculture (https://www.gob.mx/semarnat/articulos/por-que-decir-no-al-glifosato?idiom=es). However, an innovation is linked to other technological developments. Its elimination or modification must include an integrated approach to generate effective alternatives. For example, transgenic varieties, such as glyphosate-resistant soybean, or pest-resistant corn using the Bt gene. Bayer-Monsanto’s HT3 Smartstax Pro corn was recently banned by COFEPRIS Mexico for human consumption. This variety integrates genes involved in the Bt toxins production and genes for tolerance to glyphosate (established as a probable carcinogen by WHO in 2015), glufosinate and dicamba, three herbicides that broaden the spectrum of biological action. The use of these herbicides may affect plant and microbial diversity and introduces selective pressures no yet well studied. But it technology enables extensive production of crops such as soybeans and corn. Vanning glyphosate de facto eliminates the business of transgenic varieties.

Food safety and human health. High tech agriculture represents a significant investment risk due to sensible profit, conditioned by multiple factors being the perishable commodities condition the most important. It limits a broad market penetration and commercial time frames. Marketing is constrained and limited to pre-established agreements. For this production type Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) were adopted in the 1990s for food safety. That is food without, or minimum, physical, chemical, or biological contaminants at production and packing sites. GAP and GMP standards represent an increase in production cost. However, the establishment of sanitizing measures towards COVID-19 (^{Muñoz-Castellanoset al., 2021}; ^{Schneegans-Vallejoet al., 2021}), were feasible by using infrastructure already adopted such as restrooms and hygiene centers for hand washing. The hygienist organizational culture was already in place (^{Vargas-Arispuroet al., 2021}). GAP and GMP are essential to reduce the risk of human diseases, mainly due to enterobacteria (Salmonellosis) or vibrios (cholera). In fresh consumption, food safety is critical, as in berries, vegetables, and fruits. High technology production, generally associated with agro-export models, has contributed to human health mainly by preventing microbiological risks. A human disease outbreak due to products obtained at point-of-sale can be traceable.

The successful food safety approach in crops is analogous to animal production. However, in this case, the limited biological barriers with humans allowed recurrent emergence of zoonotic diseases, as exemplified with the coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2, and orthomyxoviruses, with the influenza virus. In Mexico, there is the precedent of the 2009 epidemic outbreak of theInfluenza A H1N1, becoming pandemic. This variant originates from a virus mutation in a pork farm. Similarly, the first 1997 outbreak of avianInfluenza A H5N1in Hong Kong was associated with a chicken farm. Prevention of human diseases requires a systemic approach toward food quality produced in healthy environments, therefore crop production must be integrated with animal farming and human population in the vision of ‘one health’ a new ‘health architecture’ proposed by WHO (https://www.who.int/es/news-room/commentaries).

International plant health. The international phytosanitary approach includes not only food safety strategies. It also incorporates measures to contain pest movement (e.g., pathogens, weeds, insects, etc.) at regional and transboundary levels. A phytosanitary certificate is an internationally adopted instrument developed under the preventive exclusion principle. It explains the success of Mexican growing export volumes (^{Rivas-Valencia et al., 2021}). In this context, international efforts toward health production were recognized by FAO/UN, paradoxically in the same year that COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, for its contributions to guaranteeing world food production while minimizing sanitary risks (^{Gutiérrez-Samperio, 2021}). This phytosanitary approach has conceptual and methodological strengths that could provide a rational framework for the human and animal health systems (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}; ^{Mora-Aguileraet al., 2021}). Similarly, ^{Pérez-Hernández and coworkers (2021}), adapted for plant epidemics a spatial analytical approach developed for COVID-19. Epidemiological cross-cutting applicability is possible because is based on populations and the universal principle of contagion, which operates in the time-space dimension. The CP-LANREF team developed an Epidemiological Surveillance System for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 using phytosanitary experiences (^{Mora-Aguileraet al., 2022}).

Agriculture policies and human health. The resilience of agricultural practices is inherent to the changing environment and the need for continuous adaptation along the production cycle. The epistemological and heuristic nature of agriculture, together with the increase in food global demands, represents an agricultural-sector opportunity in the face of COVID-19. The productive sector responsiveness is fundamental to influence public policy and agricultural planning to maintain the production and consumption dynamic. A search for a new agricultural paradigm is also a challenge. For example, the export-extensive vision must be adapted to small producers by identifying opportunities in local consumption markets whereas optimizing agricultural practices with organic and biological inputs viable for small-scale agriculture (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{Ayala-Zepedaet al., 2021}; ^{Samaniego-Gaxiola, 2021}; ^{Zelaya-Molinaet al., 2021}). Agricultural policies cannot be established with the same free-market principles applied in secondary and tertiary economic sectors. However, even in these cases, prevails a recurrent government ‘rescue’ upon business ‘mistakes’. For example,Fobaproa(1994) in Mexico, and thereal estate bubble(2008) in the USA which has a worldwide impact. ‘Protectionist’ policies prohibited in agricultural trade agreements have been ineffective because countries require a food production guarantee. Producers are fully aware of the economic-political frameworks needed to provide high-risk investments certainty. As an example, in Mexico, Aguascalientes producers of guava reported a lack of economic-policy protection against competitiveness detriment, which worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic (^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}). In contrast, avocado producers had strong government support, placing this sector in the first position worldwide making a significant contribution to the country’s economy (^{Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021}; ^{Castañeda-Cabreraet al., 2021}).

New productive paradigm. Agriculture, in its biological, technological, socio-cultural, and economic diversity, faces the opportunity to develop a new productive paradigm, currently based onmonoculture + genetics (varieties) + chemistry (fertilizers and pesticides), and to venture into innovative models for national and international trade. The objective is to benefit producers-consumers, to guarantee security and food safety, and in agreement with international policies of sustainable development (UN), climate mitigation (IPCC), and protection of human health (WHO).

The pandemic represents digital and technological innovation challenges for Mexican and global agriculture leading to frontier research. For instance, there is a need for scaling and optimizing the biological and environmental functional relationships towards sustainable agriculture. Research also requires new approaches to develop and enhance productive knowledge applicable to innovative technology with an impact on extensive, intensive, traditional, and organic agriculture. The current academic and productivity tendency, largely encouraged by institutional competencies, should consider agricultural innovation products as a goal equivalent to the ‘virtuous’ (or distorted) impact factor of highly cited journals. In agriculture, It is not technology the true factor of effectiveness?

Achieve global food demands, sustainability, and food security to face COVID-19 and other potential health issues, under the constrain of global agricultural supply chains crisis (required mainly by medium and high technology agriculture), represent a great opportunity to build the agriculture of the future, environment-friendly, reaching the food and health challenges (^{Ayala-Zepedaet al., 2021}; ^{Cortez-Madrigalet al., 2021}; ^{Gutiérrez-Samperio, 2021}; ^{Samaniego-Gaxiola, 2021}; ^{Zelaya-Molinaet al., 2021}).

Global supply chains and Agriculture. The disruption of industrial supply chains, including the agro-industrial (e.g., production of by-products and processed products) will continue to be a risk factor for the reactivation of national and international economies facing the fourth global epidemic wave. For example, the current chips and semiconductors deficit is causing interruption or production reduction in the automotive and electronics industries. Container shortages (real or simulated) are impacting flow and commodities movements, including agricultural goods, increasing international prices, and inflationary rises. Low cardboard and glass availability has affected the production of packaging systems impacting bottled products commercialization such as tequila, beer, and others. Even with this adverse scenario, the interruption of continuous food supply occurred to a lesser degree than expected, at least for agricultural countries such as Mexico with important local and regional distribution networks. Despite the risk of disease for harvesting, processing, transporting and distributing food labor, adherence topreventionguidelines in production units allowed their operation (^{Castañeda-Cabrera et al., 2021}; ^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}; ^{Reyes-Tenaet al., 2021}).

Industrial suppliers for cropping have reduced their activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the supply problem has affected differentially depending on the scale of agricultural production (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}). Extensive agriculture could be the most affected, because its production requires diverse and high inputs volumes (fuel, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, lubricants, spare parts, equipment, etc.), while small producers have been little affected. This segment uses their supplies or exchange (seeds, manure as organic matter, etc.), or acquires them in local or regional markets. This productive resilience was illustrated with urban agriculture in CDMX (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}).

Local supply chains. The COVID-19 crisis in Mexico showed that agricultural commodity diversity played a fundamental role in ensuring a supply of domestic market and auto consumption. This reduced the impact on product shortages or the basic food basket cost increase, unlike other countries, mainly European, which were highly dependent on imports of fresh products. Rural and urban central markets maintained the operation applying COVID-19preventionmeasures, some were shut down for a few days in high epidemic intensity (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}; ^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}; ^{Castañeda-Cabreraet al., 2021}; ^{Cruces-Pedraza, 2021}). The central agricultural market (CEDA in Spanish) in CDMX, the major in Mexico, has 327 hectares for operation and selling providing 80% and 30% of Mexican city and national demand. This Central has remained active throughout the pandemic despite an epidemic outbreak detected in April 2020, which was promptly mitigated through sanitation, controlled access, sampling, confinements, preventive hospital care, etc. (^{Bolaños and González, 2020}). In this market, the ‘CEDA to your house’ (‘CEDA a domicilio’) program was implemented on March 23, 2020 as an alternative for purchasing and delivering products at home without the implicit risk (https://www.cedaadomicilio.com/).

Plant health and COVID-19

Plant health and trade. Mexico maintained its phytosanitary policies focused on plant health, food safety, and security during the COVID-19 pandemic (^{Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021}). At the national level, the National Campaigns and Phytosanitary Epidemiological Surveillance Programs continued operating. These strategies are fundamental to reducing pest entry risk and potential production losses on selected crops (^{SIRVEF, 2021}). Activities included protection and surveillance for more than 35 pests of economic and/or quarantine importance (^{Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021}). These activities allow the issue of export certificates favoring the international fresh products trade. In addition to these efforts, on February 28, 2020, the pilot program for an electronic phytosanitary certificate (ePhyto) was announced to streamline trade between Mexico and the USA (^{SENASICA, 2021}).

The Mexican Digital Window for Foreign Trade (VDMCE, in Spanish), created in 2013, has also been fundamental to continue agricultural trade, improving the commodities release efficiency at ports entry. This instrument, created by the Mexican government to guarantee trade and supply, has contributed to SARS-CoV-2preventionby reducing the interaction between employees and users (^{SENASICA, 2021};https://bit.ly/3owWz6h). In addition to these actions, the majority of official procedures have migrated to a virtual modality, favoring procedures speedup and social distancing compliance.

New pathogen and resilience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ^{Reyes-Tena and collaborators (2021}) reported for the first time Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis (Cmm) on jitomate (Solanum lycopersicum) in Michoacán, Mexico. Production losses were 10% compared to 2020 in absence of the pathogen. At ending this document, authors were contacted for a 2021 update: ‘Concerning Cmm, we have learned to live with it; it is no longer a serious problem in macro-tunnel but in the open field’. In addition, ‘The tomato price in 2021 has been much better and farmers have done well. This example shows farmers’ resilience toward crops health problems and the risk dynamics in farming. On the contrary, with the new COVID-19 disease, the Public Health Systems were not prepared to face a global health crisis. Likewise, the population was not psychologically prepared to face a collective threat due to the individualization of the curative patient-disease model. Eventually, the COVID-19 disease must be accepted as part of the respiratory human diseases (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo Sánchez, 2021}).

The strategies proposed by WHO and health institutions are based on reactive actions based on hygienist experiences of the mid-19th century, effective in another socio-economic, scientific, and geopolitical reality. Currently, the lack of a Pansystemic Model to restorepreventionshould be remedied (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}). Vaccination, the main global mitigation strategy, is a limited strategy due to commercial interests and because it does not represent a sustainable health model in concurrency with other human epidemics.

Epidemics and endemicity. In crop production, with historical recurred epidemics, it is understood that the transition from epidemic to an endemic condition is part of the biological balance and production systems. Determining when a pathogenic agent has become established in the host population, with the consequent management strategy change, will also be a determining factor in COVID-19. However, as long as pharmaceutical companies determine the global COVID-19 mitigation agenda, it will not be possible to design relevant comprehensive scientific strategies for the benefit of the public.

Omicron, for example, could be equivalent to highly prevalent, transmissible, and low pathogenic viral variants that have been used in plant cross-protection for virus control in agriculture. This is a natural adaptive consequence from high aggressive variants able to cause millions of dead plants (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez 2021}). However, risk communication and measures adopted forOmicrongo in the opposite direction with the reestablishment of ‘preventive’ measures that broad sectors of the society in many countries reject, implying that these are not effective health crisis solutions after the limited results obtained after three epidemic waves.

Pesticides and human health. Food safety also implies monitoring the pesticide amount in harvested products used in human consumption. Toxic chemicals, as well as pathogenic organisms, can have a high impact on human health. However, unlike an immediate human reaction to microbial infection, the effects of the pesticides may have sublethal implications and require frequent contaminated products consumption or prolonged direct exposure to a pesticide (or toxics metabolites) to develop chronic diseases. Consequently, agricultural workers and local people settled near-production units may be more frequently affected than consumers. Demonstrate that pesticides prolonged exposure with carcinogenic, renal, and teratogenic effects, among other ailments, is the reason for common legal and scientific controversies.

In Mexico, traces of two to six pesticides, including glyphosate, 2-4 D, Molinate, and Picloran, were recently reported in school children in Agua Caliente and Ahuacán, Jalisco (Sierra-Díazet al., 2019; Ribeiro, 2020). Glyphosate is possibly the most debated chemical concerning carcinogenic reactions. However, recent scientific evidence concludes that it causes cancer in the lymphatic system (non-Hodgkin lymphoma) (^{Weisenburger, 2021}). In Calvillo, Aguascalientes, an increase of chronic kidney disease has been reported in recent years, associated with the indiscriminate use of pesticides in crops (^{González-Gaonaet al., 2021}), especially overexposure to Malathion and Cypermethrin (^{Mendozaet al., 2015}). An alteration in the immune system has also been reported, which has a predisposition to other diseases such as COVID-19 (^{Corsiniet al., 2008}). These are some examples of the abundant evidence in this regard.

Microbiota and plant health. Pest control with microbiological or plant extracts alternatives has been long applied in agriculture. Mexico is a leader in America with the National Reference Center for Biological Control (SENASICA-CNRCB) (^{SENASICA, 2020}); the Microbial Genetic Resources Laboratory (CNRG-INIFAP) (^{Zelaya-Molina et al., 2021}; INIFAP, 2019); and several graduate and research programs in public institutions such as INIFAP, IPN, UMSNH, COLPOS and ITSON (^{Samaniego-Gaxiola, 2021}; ^{Ayala-Zepedaet al., 2021}; ^{Santoyo, 2021}). The CNRCB has extensive microbiological collections used in national Phytosanitary Campaigns for regional pest management, limiting the use of pesticides in urban and agricultural environments (^{SENASICA, 2020}). Due to the agroecological niches diversity in Mexico, origin center of several crops, broad microbiological research tradition, and the availability of specialized human resources, the CNRG-INIFAP aims to host the world’s most complete germplasm and microbiological bank agricultural collections. The goal is to contribute with sustainable productive strategies (^{SADER, 2016}).

There is tremendous microbiological research worldwide for pests suppression. The MJP Special Issue integrates two papers related to the conceptual, theoretical, and applied framework for microbiological implication on soil health in sustainable agriculture (^{Zelaya-Molinaet al., 2021}; ^{Samaniego-Gaxiola, 2021}). However, this issue should also be included in a strategic R + D + I system to support the new agricultural paradigm. For instance, it is necessary to scale up and interdisciplinary validate microbiological studies at extensive and regional levels integrated into comprehensive productive innovation models. Bearing in mind that food production should satisfy regional, national and international food demands. As long as the microbiological studies do not transcend the Petri dish, biological strategies will not guarantee their competitiveness with conventional pesticides.

Microbiota and new agricultural paradigm. The use of promoting plant growth (MPCV) microorganisms potentially implies a breakdown of one component of the modern paradigm in agriculture: chemical fertilization (Table 1). However, as with biological control agents, their success will depend on effective agricultural public policy strategies aligned with social and environmental responsibility, and with integrative scientific-technological models (^{Samaniego-Gaxiola, 2021}; ^{Zelaya-Molinaet al., 2021}).

The global health crisis caused by COVID-19 obligates us to integrate strategies that contribute to secure, safe, and healthy food production in inclusive public policies. These desired goals should impact all society sectors not only directed to local consumers or to importing countries with capacity to pay for the quality extra value. Backyard production, practiced in developing countries by large rural sectors, must be incorporated into this quality production scheme. These self-consumption systems, important to alleviate inequality and poverty, favor close contact between humans and animals increases the risk of zoonotic diseases. The new deltacoronavirus, recently found to cause infections in children from communities associated with pig farms in Haiti, evidences the health risk on this production system (^{Lednickyet al., 2021}).

Plant health and digitalization. Agriculture digitalization has its antecedents in the 1990s extensive precision agriculture of Argentina, Brazil, and USA. Geopositioning systems (GPS) were decisive in this technological development. However, the digitalization of the integrated production process began with the profitable availability of the internet and mobile telephone equipment capable of operating applications (Apps). Android, an open-source operating system released in 2008 improved the digital possibilities. The greatest progress has been driven by companies dedicated to fertilizer production. In plan health, progress has been restricted by readily ‘solution’ toward pest control. The wide patent and generic pesticides offer, and the tendency of visual, descriptive and rapid pest ‘diagnosis’ (not necessarily effective and cause of pesticides irrational use) (https://www.hortalizas.com/proteccion-de-cultivos/61807/). At the official level, the digitization of most SENASICA-Mexico activities allowed continuity of crop health campaigns, and national and international trade during the pandemic (^{Rivas-Valenciaet al., 2021}).

Digital epidemiological surveillance. Web-based surveillance systems for citrus (Citrusspp.), coffee (Coffeaspp.), and agave (Agave tequilana) operated by SENASICA-Mexico continued in use in critical production regions or due to the interest of extension specialists. For instance, a field workshop on digital technology for coffee plantations was offered to phytosanitary specialists in Veracruz State upon their request during the COVID-19 critical phase (Figure 4) (CP-LANREF, 2021. Personal Communication). These experiences will help to strengthen the digital approach in crop health. However, there is notorious technological and capacities asymmetry among countries, even developed ones. Digital technological harmonization is essential to face transboundary pest risk scenarios to operate regional surveillance web, real-time models. Current epidemics caused byCLas-Citrus, Rust-Coffee, and FOC R4T-Banana in Latin America are examples of the urgent need that international organizations, such as FAO, IICA, IPPC, and OIRSA could lead with modern digital approaches (^{Ibarra-Zapataet al., 2021}; ^{Santivañezet al., 2014}). The global impact of COVID-19 has evidenced the lack of such computerized web models for preventive surveillance at the community-regional-continental level. These should be developed and operated by Public Health Systems, WHO, and regional health organizations. Ideally, under a system approach vision, the COVID-19 health crisis would be expected to contribute to designing, analyzing, and optimizing health policies in human, animal, and plant health for holistic-systemic models applied in preventive surveillance, operable at different spatial population scales (^{Mora-Aguileraet al., 2021}).

Tele-diagnosis. In the context of the extensionist - farmer communication, the use of digital tools for phytosanitary diagnosis optimized technical advice to urban agriculture farmers in the CDMX during a critical COVID-19 incidence phase in 2020 (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}). This case showed the incorporation of creative solutions using available technological resources. The use of digital photographs, videos in real-time communication through digital platforms, and other technological devices made possible labor, educational and social continuity, contributing to urban crop production (^{Cuevas-Castillejaet al., 2021}). Although virtual pests and diseases diagnosis is being used for a while in the official sector, throughout SENASICA and other international plant health entities, the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged its adoption due to restrictions on face-to-face activities. Similarly, it has accelerated the emergence of human clinic telemedicine, which was incipient before COVID-19 (https://www.medicasur.com.mx/es/ms/Mi_Hospital_Digital_Medica_Sur).

Figure 4 Field application of conceptual and methodological approaches to assess plant phenology and coffee rust intensity using the App-VEFCafeto® v4.7 for smartphone. Web-based Epidemiological Surveillance System for Coffee Pests (PVEF-Cafeto) workshop to extension specialists of the Veracruz State. The inner box shows chlorotic lesions due to Hemileia vastatrix infection. 

However, the parallelism in the diagnosis of diseases in plants and humans is based on the reductionistcurativeview. The assumption that thecauseis the basis for thecuredisarticulatedde factothe possibility of developing and strengthening holistic systems for disease mitigation. It also encouraged the emergence ofcurative, notpreventive, health businesses enterprises, represented by chemical-pharmaceutical consortiums with human, animal, and plant health subdivisions run with the same health problem-medicine approach. The COVID-19 pandemic evidenced thepreventiondisregard, foundation of successful public health by the end of the last century (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo Sánchezet al., 2021}; ^{Frenk, 2003}; ^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴).

Teaching and research during confinement

Academical institutions and COVID-19. COVID-19 revealed the fragility of the current educational model regarding the performance of the teaching-learning processes in a digital environment. The responsiveness was heterogeneous according to the institutional infrastructure and the ‘virtual’ capabilities or teachers and students skills. The MJP Special Issue included contributions from Mexico and Costa Rica addressing the graduate and undergraduate education and research complexity (^{Zamora-Macorra, 2021}; ^{Manoj-Kumar, 2021}; ^{Santoyo, 2021}; ^{Calvo-Araya, 2021}; ^{Solano-Báez et al., 2021}; ^{Fajardo-Franco and Aguilar-Tlatelpa, 2021}; ^{Granados-Montero, 2021}). Nevertheless, it is undeniable that even with the educational programs implementation; there is no assurance of exposure to professional, cultural, and social reality as a whole heavily restricted by confinement and social distancing. In the next section, this issued will be also addressed from the student’s perspective.

A key focus of this academic analysis is the institutional educational models resilience. This cannot be elucidated only from the RMF contributions that addressed mainly personal views on educational strategies carryout during confinement. It can be generalize, however that institution fully complied with regulations established by respective health authorities (^{Camhaji, 2021}). Institutions prohibited on-site activities in all community sectors or limited the staff access to critical research projects. Digitalization and virtualization were implemented as institutional policies and programs compliance was an indicator of the educational advancement.

As of today, a significant number of major public Mexican universities such as UNAM, IPN, and UAM, and private institutions like TEC-Monterrey and Iberoamericana, maintain their activities at ‘distance’ after almost two years from the COVID-19 epidemic onset. This is contradictory considering that vaccination program favored this sector in Mexico, in order to contribute to their reopening. This scenario shows that educational institutions chose to adhere to health regulations instead of providing innovative strategies as expected from their scientific human resources putatively qualified to solve social problems and from the student sector that presumably should be critical and active toward fundamental decisions regarding the educational model to which they are exposed. Thus, inertial and politically secure strategies were chosen, leaving universities and public research centers unable to demonstrate to the society that the scientific mass are reliable to provide the solutions to COVID-19. Education aims to change the reality through the individual transformation. And the current and immediate reality is a worldwide sanitary crisis caused by SARS-CoV-2, which teachers-educators and researchers must respond in order to contribute effectively towards its solution. However, they opted for blending with the population, with a safe wage and without facing risks of getting out of their houses to fulfill their needs as many people do during the pandemic. The educated masses, which are paid by the society, were evidenced like a privileged, secure and immobilized elite class.

The great opportunity to educate students with determination, character, social compromise and recognizing the scientific method value (well embraced by education and research) was missed toward the COVID-19 pandemic. Implicitly, we teach and replicate the fear. To extreme paradox, was depicted by Mexican students which were withdrawn of medical internships, claiming the lack of ‘optimal health conditions’ during the first COVID-19 epidemic phase. The announcement came from the Mexican Association of Medical Schools and Faculties (AMFEM, in Spanish), which includes UNAM, IPN, and private universities. Completing this paradox, students of Medicine Faculty (UNAM) recognized the authorities for such decision (^{Sanchez, 2022}). This action denies humanistic vocation strengthening, violates the Hippocratic medical principles (e.g. ‘I will spend my life and exercise my art in innocence and purity’), and sows further doubts in the society about the physician profile who is being educated. COVID-19 has precisely emphasized social health exclusion, and clearly states the demand that physicians ‘assume the public health as an important option for life’ and uproot the physician-client trend (^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴; ^{OPS, 2008}; ^{Cabello, 2001}).

Educational resilience can only be achieved through dynamic models and quality indicators sensible to the reality on which models intend to correspond. The educational and research-extension programs become the epistemological, philosophical and cognitive vision of any institution. However, academic structures are generally fixed due their rigid bureaucracy schemes; therefore tend fast to obsolescence regarding their socio-economical frames. The 20th century end to current times displayed the major scientific milestones since the Industrial Revolution having an immediate impact on technology. Nonetheless, educational institutions have been unable to response to the same pace. Heads of academic institutions, chosen for their political profile rather than scientific criteria, have adopted government decisions without a critical position, thereby submitting institutions to immobility.

Cluster and individual resilience. In a non-resilient institutional and organizational environment, independent and individualized efforts optimized institutional frameworks to pursue academic and research projects during the pandemic. Institutional clusters, led by committed scientists, continue generating human resources and cutting-edge research. These clusters showed resilience against COVID-19. The Microbial Genetic Resources Laboratories (CNRG-INIFAP, in Spanish) (Figure 5) (Zelaya-Molina et al., 202), LBRN-COLMENA (^{Ayala-Zepeda et al., 2021}), Genomic Diversity (^{Santoyo, 2021}), Functional Genomics (^{Manoj-Kumar, 2021}), and CP-LANREF (^{Mora-Aguilera et al, 2022}), exemplify such research resilient clusters with distinct organizational systems and phytosanitary research approaches with potential to contribute to the COVID-19 sanitary crisis.

In the academic environment, resilience was achieved at individual level leading to creative, reflective, and comprehensive educational efforts involving even students´ families. Teaching experience and the desire to teach plant pathology prompted, for instance in designing virtual research tools for urban farming (^{Cuevas-Castilleja et al., 2021}); and due to the impossibility of conducting field practices, household gardens and school plots were used for sampling coupled with phytopathological kits (e.g., PDA petri dishes, origami foldscope microscope, etc.) sent to students’ homes (^{Solano-Báez et al. , 2021}; ^{Granados-Montero, 2021}); and pandemic frame for scientific reflection (^{Zamora-Macorra, 2021}). One such educational innovation for virtual teaching, entitled ‘Redefining teaching in Biological Sciences: Foldscope, a success case’, was awarded in a national competition (SNTE-Mexico) (G. Márquez 2021. Personal communication). ^{Calvo-Araya (2021}), analyzed the efforts of the National University of Costa Rica to support a digital technology transition proving that distance education can be address by providing digital technical support and surveying the performance.

Even though virtual platforms were indispensable tools during the lockdown, there is consensus that plant science and agronomy disciplines cannot be fully addressed. They require practical laboratory and field training. Physical interaction teaching is obligatory, so their cancellation may explain up to 42.8% of virtual classes ‘absenteeism’ (^{Calvo-Araya, 2021}). This fact is not unique to these areas of knowledge and institutions cannot avoid it. The innovation and development of teaching and pedagogical strategies should become both structural and institutional to face this new virtual and digital reality (^{Calvo-Araya, 2021}). Gamification learning and inverted classrooms are some trends that have re-emerged in this context (^{Solano-Báez et al., 2021}). Furthermore, social and digital gaps in rural regions of Mexico, as in other countries, should not be ignored and must be considered (^{Fajardo-Franco and Aguilar-Tlatelpa, 2021}). Undeniably, virtualization and digitalization represent an educational and cultural opportunity for bring institutions and society closer and to establish effective academic and research networks. However, the channels and programs must not be improvised and should clearly state as educative, informative, or just playful (^{Andreu, 2021}; ^{Carvajal, 2021}).

The impact of COVID-19 on education has lacked so far a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary institutional analysis. This is important due to the existence of not public institutional metadata (^{Vidal et al., 2021}). This limited responsiveness is explained by inertial educational models, not resilience and unable to convert realities into opportunity areas. Nevertheless, international organizations reports, such as ECLAC (CEPAL, 2020), has announced the educational advances setback; not only on cognitive issues but also on psychological, social, and leadership developments. Students have been disconnected from their reality for prolonged periods. Institutions and educators are not providing any alternative strategy. The COVID-19 risk as argument for virtual education cannot and should not be used indefinitely.

History has shown that those student generations facing dialectic and convulsive socioeconomic crises generated society leaders. Therefore, suspicion arises when constrained rights are issued on the excuse of COVID-19; for example, for the Chilean, Colombian, and Ecuadorian student demonstrations (^{Anfossi, 2021}; ^{Reuterset al., 2021}; ^{Apet al., 2021}). As society moves towards digitalization and consumption, appears the willingness to automate professions and override human nature and social values. Those values that aroused and evolved from strong disagreements, costly and tragic, along with history (e.g., freedom, equality, fraternity). ‘Mass formation’ by adopting COVID-19 as a cohesion strategy can be avoided only by critical, proactive, and problem-solving science.

Economy of virtualization. Virtualization and digitalization of daily life became a functional need toward COVID-19. In Mexico, the rise of electronic commerce (eCommerce) increased 600% in the fourth week of lockdown (^{Sanchez, 2021}). With six out of 10 Mexican consumers going digital, the estimated sales value was US$ 31.4 billion in 2020, nearly double the amount that Mexico has invested in vaccine acquisition by midyear (^{Riquelme, 2021}). Together with pharmaceutics, these companies have profit from pandemics. The digital industry (e.g. Apple, Microsoft, etc.) raised prices in a ‘successful’ year. The supply and demand market paradigm rules out without any solidarity sign with household spending. Moreover, the large digital services companies (e.g., Amazon, Netflix, Zoom, Google, and Meta Platforms (Facebook)) also increase their capital and stock market price (^{Reuters, 2021}).

The digitalization needs in all fields, not just education, helped technological and digital service providers to encourage governments to expand the connectivity networks(https://www.inegi.org.mx/rnm/index.php/catalog/674;^{Villanueva, 2021}). In addition, due to lockdown, home office extra-hours and operational costs reduction were recognized as advantageous for the education, business, and government sectors, strengthening teleworking as a cost-effective option. Thus, Mexico implemented regulations to prevent labor abuse (^{La Jornada, 2021b}). Nevertheless, private universities kept their onerous tuition fees, shifting the technological cost to households.

Source: ^{Zelaya-Molina et al., 2021}

Figure 5 The National Genetic Resource Center of the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Center (Centro Nacional de Recursos Genéticos del Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias, or CNRG-INIFAP), created to preserve and protect the beneficial microbe and plant biodiversity related to the Mexican agri-food sector. Researchers of the Microbial Genetic Resources Laboratory (Laboratorio de Recursos Genéticos Microbianos) working on the identification of agriculturally important fungi and the conservation of plant growth-promoting bacteria.  

Covid-19 student vision

Educative limitations. The COVID-19 sanitary crisis disrupted every human activity. In this context, virtual and digital education offered an opportunity to analyze potential endeavors. Nevertheless, was in the teacher-student scheme, rather than at the institutional structure, where lied the educational problem. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s), usually implemented in institutions for intranet service and web platform support, required its adaptation to provide educational capabilities. However, not all institutions had the infrastructure or the human resources for this challenge (^{Calvo-Araya, 2021}; ^{Manoj-Kumar, 2021}; ^{Fajardo-Franco and Aguilar-Tlatelpa, 2021}). Consequently, individual efforts opted to complement institutional capabilities by contracting commercial virtual platform or adopting open access systems, such as Teams, BlueJeans, and Zoom (^{Solano-Báez et al., 2021}; ^{Granados-Montero, 2021}; ^{Fajardo-Franco and Aguilar-Tlatelpa, 2021}). These platforms were not originally designed for educational purposes, but allow online multiuser meetings with real-time interaction, in contrast to traditional e-learning systems, like Moodle and Blackboard, which require license or institutional support. These systems are configured for remote education with an emphasis on teaching material management (^{Basogain-Urrutia, 2021}).

From the Plant Health undergraduate and graduate students’ perspective, virtual teaching experience throughout the pandemic has been unsatisfactory due to poor technological expertise in the teaching community, limited regional connectivity quality, or conventional use of educational methods (^{García-Reynoso, 2021}; ^{González-Cruces, 2021}; ^{Rubio-Tinajero and Zapata-Contreras, 2021}; ^{Villalobos-Camacho, 2021}). Research on the subject rose to same conclusions (^{Calvo-Araya, 2021}; ^{Basogain-Urrutia, 2021}).

Regarding the research programs, students state that neither CONACYT nor the academic institutions had the sensitivity to adjust timeframe, requirements, or logistics. This resulted in losing or repeating experiments, and changing research projects (^{González-Meléndez, 2021}; ^{Rubio-Tinajero and Zapata-Contreras, 2021}). Institutions setback, aligned with sanitary regulation, contrasted with the students´ efforts to solve their research logistic problems and to face the COVID-19 risk. This was the experience of a doctoral student (^{Rubio-Tinajero and Zapata-Contreras. 2021}). Agriculture as an essential activity in the pandemic context allows institutions and academic staff associated with this primary activity to find a creative and effective way to continue functioning. Transferring to students’ research responsibilities is not fair and ethical. Consequently, it is understood that‘the scholarship holder is the most affected’is the major student claim in the pandemic context. Nevertheless, resilient institutional research clusters prevent this no-articulated student work, allowing effective graduate programs with appropriate infrastructure and logistical support for the excellent formation of human resources (^{Ayala-Zepedaet al., 2021}; ^{Santoyo, 2021}).

The pandemic generation. The psychological, sociocultural, and educational impact of COVID-19 on students illustrates the pandemic effect on the young generation. Previous to the pandemics, students stood with a sense appropriation of the new virtual era society. They were perceived as the future holder. Suddenly, their freedom was restrained. Confined to physical ‘silence’ proven that digital media is a bridge that emerge and makes sense from a tangible reality. Only the ‘fear to death’ could blur that vital force, feared so much in the traditional political institutions and democracy (^{Reuters et al., 2021}; ^{González-Cruces, 2021}; ^{González-Meléndez, 2021}; ^{de la Hoz-Ruiz, 2021}; ^{García-Reynoso, 2021}; ^{Villalobos-Camacho, 2021}; ^{Rubio-Tinajero and Zapata-Contreras, 2021}).

This generation, the most resilient due to their envisioned vocation, must reactivate itself creatively and without assuming fears and risks not corresponding to them, but with social responsibility that the health crisis requires. They may be those demanding wisdom and responsibility upon the excessive politicization, dangerous massive fear invocation without any or limited scientific support, and excessive corporate profit-making made of the healthcare as a business. The following excerpt contributions are an insight into the young students’ endurance strength:

‘Importantly, I have finally recovered (due to COVID-19), even with after-effects... but I am motivated to carry on my research... the courses will probably continue online, with limitations on equipment and laboratory infrastructure, although continuing the postgraduate program is important; ... My research is ongoing, and even though the progress has been slow due to pandemic restrictions, I know I will achieve my objectives. The situation encourages me to be self-taught, to look for solutions, and constantly update myself in digital technologies, on the other hand, I am ready to adapt to the situation to comply with my obligations and responsibilities’(^{Rubio-Tinajero and Zapata-Contreras, 2021}).

‘... To value and respect everyone in our lives. We must work to achieve what we want and end-all absurd stereotypes... be proud of belonging to this country, and return to society with work and assistance what Mexico has given us’ (^{Villalobos-Camacho, 2021}).

‘Being housebound... made me a little confused, tired and anxious...... The same exciting feeling is not felt through a computer. I have become very discouraged to carry on all those things that I usually did’ (^{Garcia-Reynoso, 2021}).

‘In every environment, we are adapting ourselves as much as possible, as a society we are demonstrating able to continue pursuing an academic and working life as normal as possible to avoid stop our personal development, although with the necessary care and responsibility to protect the health of the people around us’ (^{de la Hoz-Ruiz, 2021}).

‘The laboratory is not anymore as before, with colleagues sharing results and difficulties, exchanging tips, or even some materials. I believe the pandemic forced us to work more slowly and as individuals... Many challenges still have to be overcome, although not all activities have been fully restored, however, the science never stops and we found a way to face it...’ (^{González-Meléndez, 2021}).

‘I trust that scientific advances will improve the pandemic mitigation. I am not scared to be infected; however, I try to be as careful as possible to avoid infecting my mother or my grandparents. We have been in similar epidemic situations in history... A system in entropy, as we know, always tends to equilibrium. I am hopeful for the growers, farmers, and ranchers, the primary sector that makes me proud and motivated because they carry on their shoulders the most important responsibility: feeding the human population’ (^{González-Cruces, 2021}).

Final considerations

SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic is a multidimensional problem going beyond the predominant patient-disease approach framed at the hospital-ambulatory environment, or event at the less common community-population disease monitoring associated with the Public Health Systems. Any solution limited to these approaches lacks the comprehensive preventive emphasis and sustainability necessary to restore integral health within the systemic model of physical, mental, and social components (WHO). Furthermore, the global institutional plans ‘One Health, a New Health Architecture’ (WHO), ‘Zero Hunger’ (FAO), and ‘Sustainable Development’ (UN), would be losing a historic opportunity to align efforts to transcend the classical declarative and programmatic approach required to face the complex dimension of the international crisis imposed by COVID-19.

The need for a Pansystemic Preventive Model of Plant, Animal, and Human Health, articulated and harmonized with Regional Epidemiological Surveillance Models implemented by respective Health Systems, is urgently needed (^{Mora-Aguilera and Acevedo-Sánchez, 2021}). In the search for comprehensive solutions, Agriculture, due to its humanistic, civilizing, and well-being nature, is helping to mitigate the COVID-19 health crises through the global food supply. Remarkably, that Agriculture is sustaining production activity despite workers´ infection risks, and that has been contained excessive food price increases and speculative financial practices decontrolled in other economic sectors profiting from the health crisis.

Plant Health activities, directly supporting agricultural production, proved their resilience in safeguarding the health of the crops. This allowed domestic food supplied and safe international circulation with pests and pathogens risk monitoring for importing countries´ crops. This preventive transterritorial scheme, implemented since the late last century, could be emulated for human health risks as primary mitigation front balancing the current preeminence of the patient-client curative approach. This approach has disarticulated the public health model adopting this precept by reforming their juridical status (^{Franco-Giraldo, 2019}; ²⁰¹⁴; ^{Frenk, 2003}; ^{Cabello, 2001}), benefitting the pharmaceutical companies.

The success of global risk awareness and plant pest monitoring can be highlighted by the fact that historical human famines belong to the past. The quasi-pandemic epidemics, such as that caused by ‘Late potato blight’ are no longer an issue. As in humans, however, recurrent epidemic outbreaks occur. Therefore works still need to be done on prevention at the regional level. For agricultural scenarios, epidemiological surveillance regional models, based on advanced digital and genomic technologies, coupled with the comprehension of epidemics transitions to endemicity, allow fast adaptation of mitigation strategies harmonized with effective risk communication. This territorial prevention - protection (i.e. cure) plant health model can contribute to the ‘One Health’ global WHO´s envision. Readily, can contribute to the poor official risk communication on COVID-19 as depicted on these series of official declarations: ‘Omicron will generate a ‘Tsunami of cases’;… ‘Maybe less critical than Delta, but not minor’; ... ‘Health Systems are at the collapse risk’ (WHO).

The first preventive front for COVID-19, and other potential zoonotic diseases, however, is not the human population. We need to move one step backward to natural environments and their connection to agriculture, urban pressure, and climate change. It is in this framework where a holistic-systemic-dynamic human disease risk model must be generated and applied. In this complexity, should be placed the need for a new agricultural production paradigm. This should be strong enough to balance the increasing global food demand with sustainable and resilient ecosystem services. A systemic and coordinated effort for environmental and agricultural productive assets preservation must integrate all economic sectors to prevent and mitigate future pandemic risks. The root solution is multifactorial.

Through the Special Issue, ‘COVID-19 and Plant Health’ Vol. 39(4), the Mexican Society of Phytopathology / Mexican Journal of Phytopathology integrates research, reflections, data analysis, and proposals from productive actors, research, and academia in the context of the global human health crisis caused by COVID-19. The objective of making visible to all social sectors the plant health actions and efforts to crops health, and how it contributes to the COVID-19 problem solution, was fulfilled. Also, it intended to emulate and stimulate the excellence and social commitment of the scientific and academic activity. The Special Issue ‘COVID-19 and Plant Health’ was motivated by all human beings who suffer from the anguish of getting sick, languish in confinement, fear losing a job or postponing dreams, and by all farmers that make food possible in the world.