In this episode of Cultivating the Future, Celia Spyridaki speaks with Mohitul Hossain, a PhD student at the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM) at Curtin University, about the next generation of genome-enabled tools for crop disease surveillance.

Mohitul shares his international academic journey, completing forestry studies across Bangladesh, Finland and Germany, before moving into plant pathology and ecophysiology research in Australia. His work now focuses on developing genome-based decision-support systems that help researchers, breeders and growers better anticipate disease risks and make more informed cultivar choices.

The conversation explores how automated screening for pathogenicity effectors, combined with region-specific effector-based cultivar recommendations, could transform how crop diseases are monitored and managed. By integrating genomics, surveillance data and decision-support technologies, this research aims to deliver faster, more precise responses to emerging disease threats and strengthen the resilience of cropping systems.