Taking on Fall Armyworm in Africa: The search for effective natural enemies

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Written by Ivan Rwomushana. Reblogged from CABI’s Invasives Blog. The Fall Armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda has emerged as a serious threat to food security for millions of smallholder producers in Africa due to its rapid spread across the continent and extensive damage to staple cereals. At the last count, at least 28 countries were reported to be…
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E-plant clinics launched in Mozambique

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E-plant clinics have been successfully launched in Mozambique this November, following two trainings and official launches. The trainings took place in a village called Tenga, Moamba near the capital city of Maputo (around 80 km), and in Morrumbene District near the city of Inhambane. Training was delivered in partnership with the National Directorate of Agricultural…
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The disease that could change how we drink coffee

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Reblogged from BBC Future Written by Jose Luis Penarredonda If you landed in Bogota in the 1960s, one of the first things you would have probably seen outside the airport was a giant billboard. In a slightly menacing tone, it said: “Coffee rust is the enemy. Don’t bring plant materials from abroad”. It was one…
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Suspected pesticide poisoning in India highlights importance of PPE

On 5th October, the BBC reported that at least 50 farmers have died in the western state of Mharashtra, India, since July, due to suspected accidental pesticide poisoning (see the full article on the BBC website). Nineteen of these deaths were reported from Yavatmal district, a major cotton growing area, where farmers use a variety…
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Update: New Pest & Disease Records (24 Aug 17)

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We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this fortnight include a first report of Citrus leaf blotch virus in lemon in China, first report of Groundnut bud necrosis virus infecting periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) in India and the first report of Colletotrichum…
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Gender and Agricultural Extension

Did you know that women produce more than half of all food grown worldwide, and in sub-Saharan Africa women produce up to 80% of all food (FAO, 2011)? Yet across Asia and Africa it is common that women are not given access to the same amount of resources as men, whether that is money, land,…
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Could perennial crops be an answer to climate change?

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Reblogged from The Economic Times BENGALURU: While India reaped the benefits of the Green Revolution in the 1960s, her neighbour China is now taking the lead in another area of sustainable agriculture — developing crops that meet the challenges posed by global warming. Chinese agricultural scientists are working to convert seasonal crops into perennial crops…
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Plantwise Pest Alerts – free email subscription service

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Are you interested in keeping up to date with crop pest and disease literature reports? You’re invited to sign up to our monthly pest alert email containing links to recently published scientific literature from around the globe. On sign up, select which country or region you are interested in, or the Worldwide regional option. Feel…
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Why a problem of plenty is hurting India's farmers

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By Soutik Biswas. Reblogged from BBC News. Farmers are on the boil again in India. In western Maharashtra state, they have been on strike for a week in some seven districts now, spilling milk on the streets, shutting down markets, protesting on the roads and attacking vegetable trucks. In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, curfew has been imposed after…
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Kenya gets new production facility to control crop pest

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By Sam Otieno. Reblogged from SciDevNet A facility has been launched in Kenya to aid commercial production of a protein bait to control fruit flies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The US$250,000 facility, which resulted from public-private partnership involving the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) and Kenya Biologics Ltd, will enable smallholders control fruit flies that devastate their fruits…
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