Plant Disease and Phytopathogen Research in Central Asia: A Bibliometric Mapping of Research Trends, Collaboration, and Emerging Directions

Plant diseases and phytopathogenic threats pose significant challenges to agricultural productivity and food security in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. This study aimed to characterize research development, scientific productivity, collaboration patterns, intellectual structure, and emerging trends in plant disease and phytopathogen research. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using 505 Scopus-indexed publications from 1994 to 2026, covering 253 sources and 2485 authors. Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer were used for performance analysis and science mapping, including citation, co-authorship, collaboration, co-citation, bibliographic coupling, historiograph, and keyword co-occurrence analyses. Research output showed an annual growth rate of 11.65%, with an average of 13.94 citations per publication. Kazakhstan (143 publications) and Uzbekistan (82 publications) were the leading contributors, while international co-authorship accounted for 33.66% of publications. Three major research directions were identified: wheat disease resistance and molecular breeding, plant pathogens and fungal biodiversity, and plant-associated microorganisms, microbiology, and phylogenetic characterization. Recent trends indicate increasing attention to molecular and genomic approaches, microbiome research, and deep learning. Overall, research in Central Asia is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, highlighting the need to integrate genomic diagnostics, pathogen surveillance, molecular breeding, biological control, and data-driven approaches for sustainable plant disease management.