Parasitic plants (e.g. Striga - witchweeds and Orobanche - broomrapes) severely constrain Mediterranean and Tropical agriculture, affecting major crops, yet the efficacy of available means to control had been minimal. Control strategies had centred on agronomic practices and the use of herbicides, although success has been marginal. There is, thus, an urgent need to re-evaluate novel integrated control programmes in the light of recent basic research successes in understanding the enemy. There are also many other aspects such as their origin and evolution from non parasitic plants, their population structures, their evolutionary pathways towards becoming crop parasites, their molecular biology, the structure, function and development of the haustorium, their ecology, the physiology of parasitism, that are becoming of great help in developing new integrated and effective control strategies.

A group of experts using "advanced approaches" to parasitic weed management having backgrounds in the different aspects of biotechnologies will be expected to give highly qualified and advanced lectures, followed by long periods of discussions. A further aim of the conference is to create a network of young and experienced scientists that could have, find or create new opportunities to collaborate in this field of science that requires a “global” collaborative approach.