COVID-19 and essential activities

The current pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to radical changes in the way we relate to others. Psychological and mental health problems are expected to arise during and after the pandemic (^{Antiporta and Bruni, 2020}). Across the world, teaching and research activities made a sudden transition from the in-person model to a virtual one using different digital platforms (^{ECLAC, 2020}). Following the declaration of an international public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), unprecedented mitigation and preventive measures were adopted throughout the world, including the closure of non-essential socio-economic activities, social distancing, and voluntary or compulsory confinement of the population, enforced by the threat of imprisonment or heavy fines. These strategies affected all scientific areas and plant health was no exception. In Mexico, public health authorities implemented voluntary confinement on March 23, 2020 (^{DOF, 2020}). In the face of the resulting confusion and uncertainty, phytosanitary teaching and research activities were almost completely paralyzed in several institutions, together with all non-essential activities. However, since agricultural production was classified as an essential activity, and plant health is a crucial discipline for the establishment of plant safety, quality, and productive health programs, different public institutions were motivated to resume, in a discretionary manner, education and research activities focused on plant health. Some of these institutions never ceased to carry out such activities, following the preventive guidelines issued by the Secretary of Health. The essential nature of plant health studies was explicitly recognized by the United Nations with the “2020, International Year of Plant Health” (see Letter to the Editor from Jorge Gutiérrez. Editor’s Note).

In Mexico, agricultural activities were not suspended during the pandemic. Primary productive activities maintained their usual rhythm. However, some production chains were affected by the disruption of transport networks and the supply of highly specialized inputs (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides, packaging materials, etc.). The agricultural sector was the only one that maintained a positive growth rate during the pandemic, proving that food production is essential for humanity. Despite the increasing loss of human life from SARS-CoV-2 and the collapse of national economies throughout the world, global demand for food continued to increase. Nevertheless, society does not understand the full economic and social value of agriculture. In many countries, agricultural production has even been undermined as a hindrance to modernity, compromising self-sufficiency and food security. The current pandemic has shown the fragility of economies based mostly on services and tourism, with large, high-income cities suffering from food shortages, whereas economies with a tradition of primary production activities, including rural communities, were able to remain self-sufficient.

The reaction of the plant health academic sector

As weeks of confinement went by and the global pandemic did not seem to yield to mitigation measures, the need to continue teaching and research in plant health prompted a resumption of academic activities. Adversity bred creativity and in a short period, there was a revolution in teaching and research in plant health. There were contrasts, of course, depending on the capacity for resilience and leadership among institutions and individuals. The rapid adaptation to the ‘new normality’ made it possible to resume academic and research activities, in some cases with greater impetus, to make up for the time lost during the period of confinement. Although the health sector had not faced a health crisis of this magnitude since the middle of the last century, its response was quick and effective. There are indeed areas of opportunity, but we appreciate the public benefits of establishing flexible guidelines that allowed for the partial opening of economic activities, the voluntary nature of confinement, and the resumption of in-person research activities, all without increasing public debt.

In the case of research activities in the phytosanitary area, mainly in postgraduate studies, the relevant academic institutions reopened activities under a strict access schedule for staff, students, and academics. Hybrid schemes (in-person/remote) and alternate working schedules for academics were used to ensure the continuity of tutoring and research projects. This was meant to reduce the risk of contagion in educational facilities. As part of the ‘new normality’, comprehensive sanitary protocols were put in place to regulate access, movement, permanence, and performance of essential activities inside academic facilities.

Teaching during confinement

Teaching theoretical subjects under the conditions imposed by the pandemic was a major challenge, having to transition from in-person to remote settings in a matter of days. However, the change was manageable due to the availability of digital platforms for the creation and administration of virtual classrooms (Table 1), videoconferencing (Table 2), and remote storage (Table 3). The large offer of connectivity and payment services in Mexico favored this digital migration. While it is true that digital strategies have limitations, such as the digital divide, due to socioeconomic reasons, between urban and rural areas, digital tools made it possible to keep postgraduate academic programs going during the pandemic. In some cases, in which students did not have access to an electronic device, institutions such as the National Polytechnic Institute made a call to provide computer equipment to low-income students so that they could continue with their academic training. Teachers who for some reason did not have portable computer equipment received support too, while other institutions allowed them to take institutional computer equipment to their homes. One of the lessons of the current pandemic is that having access to an electronic device connected to the internet is no longer a luxury but an essential part of everyone’s productive activity.

A disadvantage of remote teaching is the impossibility to use the blackboard. Although virtual classroom platforms have a digital blackboard, its use represents a technological challenge that not all teachers can face easily. Another important challenge of virtual teaching is that during the projection of slides, we lose visual contact with the students, which makes it difficult to assess how much attention are they paying. In large groups, it can be difficult to keep the attention of the students through questions directed to each one of them. However, the flipped classroom model (^{O’Flaherty and Phillips, 2015}) can be a valuable tool to overcome this disadvantage, putting the responsibility for his academic training on the student himself, always under the strict supervision of the teacher. This strategy makes theoretical classes more dynamic and awakens in the students interest to investigate for themselves. Another important tool to awaken the interest of students is the gamification of learning using digital applications (Table 4). Educational gamification is a pedagogical strategy that fosters communication and commitment in students in an environment that combines formal and informal elements. As its name implies, it is based on the combination of recreational activities and learning (^{Marín, 2015}).

Phytopathology practices in a digital environment

The most important challenge in phytosanitary education under the ‘new normality’ scheme is the one posed by theoretical-practical subjects. An example of this is the Introduction to Plant Pathology course. In a situation in which students cannot use institutional laboratories, innovative strategies must be developed. In this case, we designed a functional system for carrying out virtual laboratory practices. The students were asked to obtain certain materials that could replace the equipment that is commonly used in-person mycology practices. For example, a lighter or alcohol lamp can easily be substituted for a small, clean glass jar with a lid and a cotton wick. A wool needle attached to a wooden toothpick can serve as a dissecting needle. Sterile distilled water can be substituted for boiled bottled water. A piece of copper tube can be used as a punch, etc. In this way, it was only necessary to send the students certain difficult-to-obtain materials such as sterile blotting paper, coverslips, slides, an aliquot of lactic acid, etc. This made it possible to carry out some practices through virtual monitoring. Each student’s house became a phytopathology laboratory, where it was even possible to isolate phytopathogenic fungi. Each student, from the safety of their home, made temporary and semi-permanent preparations that they were then able to observe using a paper microscope called Foldscope (https://www.foldscope.com/) (^{Parada-Sanchez et al., 2018}). This origami microscope has a resolution of up to 2 microns, allows to know the magnification at which the observation is made, and can be purchased online for less than MXN 200. It is assembled following the instructions provided by the manufacturer and allows to observe semi-permanent preparations that are inserted into it. Mounted slides can be observed against the light simply by bringing the device close to the user’s eye. When natural light is insufficient, the equipment has an included lighting system that is attached to the paper microscope, allowing to observe the preparations even in dark conditions. The equipment also allows projecting the slides onto a flat surface using the ‘flash’ of a cellular phone as a projector. The microscope can also be attached to the lens of any cellular equipment, thanks to the magnets that surround the microscope lens, so that students were able to capture the images of the organisms under study (Figure 1). These images were integrated into a conventional report of laboratory work. For more information on the use of the Foldscope, consult the user guide at https://www.foldscope.com/user-guide/. The Foldscope has been used throughout the world for different scientific applications (https://www.foldscope.com/research). Another innovative experience in practical Phytopathology work, using virtual traceability, can be found in the work of María del Milagro Granados in this Section (Editor’s Note).

Figure 1 A. Foldscope; B-F. Images taken using the Foldscope coupled to a mobile phone camera using a desk lamp as a light source. B. Sporangia of Peronospora belbahrii. C. Teliospores of Sporisorium reilianum f. sp. zeae. D. Pseudothecium of Mycosphaerella fijiensis. E. Male of Meloidogyne sp. F. Specimen of Tetranychus urticae.  

In the cases where it was not possible to use the described modality for virtual practical work, the best alternative was the creation of short videos showing the teacher carrying out the practice. The student can then consult the videos when he needs them, particularly when carrying out some activity related to his research work. In the creation of these videos, it is recommended that the teacher explains in detail all the procedures as he performs them, as well as the fundamentals of the different techniques used.

In the case of the practical work associated with Agroecological Management of Pests and Diseases in the master’s program of the same name at the Center for the Development of Biotic Products (CEPROBI-IPN), under normal conditions, the students work in an agroecological orchard at CEPROBI. Due to the pandemic, these activities were carried out individually at home. Each student managed his orchard following agroecological precepts, reporting their progress through video reports. For other subjects, such as Entomology, the teachers digitized the available biological collections. In others, the students received training in the use of laboratory equipment through video tutorials.

Conclusions

Our experience in the teaching of Phytosanitary subjects shows the possibility of using innovations to improve the teaching-learning process under virtual settings. Innovative ideas will allow academic and research activities to continue without losing motivation and with renewed interest during the pandemic. We must recognize that despite the confinement, students, workers, and academics have significantly contributed to the continuity of institutional activities, a clear example of our capacity for behavioral and social adaptation. We also acknowledge and mourn the loss of great researchers and teachers due to COVID-19. We hope to emulate them in the formation of human resources highly trained in Plant Health. Greater challenges may lie ahead, but constant and ethical work will allow us to overcome current and future crises.