Dr Nicky Creux was an invited speaker at the Sclerotinia Discussion that formed part of the Rhizobium Symposium on 7 September at the CSIR Convention Center. The symposium was divided into two parts, with the first discussing the use of rhizobium applications to enhance soybean production. Mr Maglia from Rizobacter in Brazil discussed the international research on rhizobia applications. Mr Nepfumbada (Retrose Scientific) discussed the governmental regulation around registering rhizobia technologies and Mr Etherington (MBFi) discussed the applications of rhizobia in soy farming. The second session focused on rhizobia research in South Africa with key talks by Dr Hassen (ARC-PPRI) and Dr Hendriks (Mikrobikahttps://www.microbika.com). The after lunch session focused on Sclerotinia and included two invited talks by Dr Lisa Rothmann (University of the Free State) and Dr Nicky Creux. Dr Rothmann discussed and highlighted the importance of the South African Sclerotinia Research Network and Dr Creux discussed her group's work on understanding the impact of planting dates on Sclerotinia head rot disease progression in sunflower. After the talks Dr Rothmann and Dr Creux were joined by additional experts for a panel discussion on managing Sclerotinia. The 2021/2022 field season saw major Sclerotinia outbreaks in both sunflower and soy farming and is a major concern for the industry.

To get connected to the South African Sclerotinia Network find them on Facebook, instagram and twitter @sclerotiniaZA, http://sclerotinia.co.za or email info@sclerotinia.co.za.