In the celebration of the Annual 25th International Scientific Conference “Research for Rural Development 2019ˮ held at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, in Jelgava, from 15 to 17 May, participants with different backgrounds from 12 countries did 156 presentations, enjoyed welcome dinner with Latvian folk songs and dances as well as tasted a special cake. During a social programme of the conference, the participants visited a malt production plant, Rundāle palace and had farewell lunch. In the retrospect, four months later, we consider the Conference a great success in terms of interdisciplinary studies and networking opportunities. The sessions of the conference were structured so as to give all participants the opportunity to contribute to the primary purpose of the conference, which is discussion of important current issues facing rural development. The interdisciplinary proceedings of the Annual 25th International Scientific Conference “Research for Rural Development 2019ˮ (two volumes since 2010) are intended for academics, students and professionals. The subjects covered by those issues are as follows: crop production, animal breeding, agricultural engineering, agrarian and regional economics, food sciences, veterinary medicine, forestry, wood processing, water management, environmental engineering, information and communication technologies.

Weather conditions in Latvia are very favourable for the development of potato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont) de Bary. The control of potato late blight can be performed using different approaches: standardised technology, prognoses of the first infection and prognoses of the progress of disease development. The negative prognosis model Negfry is based on the last two mentioned above. For the control of potato late blight in Latvia mainly has been used - standardised technology. The first field treatment was made during the row closing or according to prognoses. Regular treatments were made each 8-14 days. The use of NegFry model started in Latvia in 1998. Local varieties and weather data have been used for the trial. For the control of potato late blight in field trials standartised fungicide application was compared with the NegFry model and the untreated variant. The major task of the use of the model is possibility to reduce the number of fungicide treatments. The NegFry model helps to realise an integrated plant protection system, which decreases fungicide application and increases economical efficiency.

The spread of thrips was observed in winter rye, wheat and triticale crops during the growing season of 2001 at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture in Dotnuva. Thrips started to spread in winter cereals of the end of tilling - beginning of stem elongation stage (DC 29-30). In winter rye and triticale the spread of thrips was similar. There were two well-defined peaks of thrips occurrence. The highest incidence of thrips was on winter rye. There were 100% infested stems and 15.4 thrips per infested stem in rye, 90% infested stems and 6.9 thrips per infested stem in triticale and 84% infested stems and 2.9 thrips per infested stem in wheat.

Evaluation of virulences of Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei was started in Latvia in 1981, first in the Baltic States. Until 1994 the observations were carried out only in the central part of Latvia - Salaspils. As the climatic factors and the used barley varieties in various parts of Latvia are different, in 1995 we started regular observations of the particularities of the genetic structure of the pathogen population also in Daugavpils. The aim of this investigation was to detect particularities of the genetic structure of the pathogen population in different parts of Latvia in 1996-2000.

Poor phytosanitation affects banana quality through physical defects, harbouring of pests and diseases. The implications on marketing are briefly discussed