World Food Prize winner’s vision sown in CABI-led Plantwise programme in Myanmar

Wayne ColesLeave a comment
Phathril Akradejvichit
World Food Prize Laureate for 2019 Simon N. Groot, founder of East-West Seed, helped train CABI Plantwise plant doctors in Myanmar so farmers can grow more and lose less to pests and diseases (Photo: World Food Prize).

Simon N. Groot, the Dutch founder of East-West Seed, has won the World Food Prize 2019 for empowering millions of smallholder countries in more than 60 countries earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production.

This includes his company – under the East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer (EWS-KT) – working with the CABI-led Plantwise programme to train Myanmar’s first group of plant doctors who are helping farmers reduce their losses by diagnosing problems with their crops. East-West Seed also provided their expertise to CABI through a number of external factsheets provided for the Plantwise Knowledge Bank.

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Update: New Pest & Disease Records (07 June 2019)

Will Holland1 Comment
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This month’s pest alerts include a report on Bursaphelenchus michalskii n. and its association with the large elm bark beetle and Dutch elm disease (© Pexels)

We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include the first report of a novel alphapartitivirus in Rhizoctonia oryzae-sativae, the causal agent of aggregate sheath spot disease of rice; a report on Bursaphelenchus rockyi sp. in peat moss in Russia and a report on Bursaphelenchus michalskii n. on large elm bark beetles and its association with Dutch elm disease. Continue reading →

‘Green Super Rice’: Improving smallholder incomes and reducing hunger across Asia and Africa

Will Holland1 Comment
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With increasing occurrences in unfavorable biotic and abiotic conditions, farmers are facing significant challenges with maintaining successful crop yields. With the development of GSR varieties, farmers across Asia and Africa can tailor their crops to regional-specific conditions and promote crop yields (© Pexels).

Scientists and crop breeders in China have produced new varieties of rice called ‘Green Super Rice’ (GSR) to help tackle the global burden of increasing populations, food production and farmer incomes with its 20% increase in yield across varying challenging growing conditions.

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“The warnings of impending doom are real but the timeframe is very much up for debate”

Donna HutchinsonLeave a comment

The CABI Blog

africa-1129037_1920 Bananas are eaten the world over but could they really become extinct if a strain of Panama disease takes hold?

Did you know that more than 100 billion bananas are eaten every year in the world, making them the fourth most popular agricultural product? You might also be surprised to learn that Uganda has the highest average per capita consumption in the world, where residents eat an average of 226kgs of bananas per person per year.

In short, bananas are big business – a $35billion global industry as a rough estimate. But all that could come to a crashing halt if the headline in the British Daily Mail newspaper, predicting the fruit’s extinction, is to be believed. The fears are that a strain of Panama disease could wipe out the humble banana putting the food security of millions in Developing World countries that depend upon it for nutrition at risk.

CABI’s very own…

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Test your plant health knowledge with the plant doctor quiz

Donna HutchinsonLeave a comment

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>> Latest quiz just added

Plantwise plant doctors are at the heart of our plant clinic network providing advice and information to farmers, logging their data for the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, and always adapting to new outbreaks and technologies.

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a plant doctor? Take our online plant health quiz and find out! Continue reading →

How can tomato farming be improved in Kenya? Study finds producers face a ‘myriad of constraints’

Donna Hutchinson1 Comment

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In a recently published paper in Scientific African, CABI’s Willis Ochilo led on a study which captured a better understanding of tomato producers in Kenya, describing in detail the production practices in order to identify challenges and opportunities for increasing tomato productivity for the country’s smallholder communities.

Tomato is a good source of vitamins A and C, and lycopene making it an important crop in terms of food and nutritional security for families in Kenya, and is in fact eaten in nearly all households across the country.

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How bees can be a friend to smallholders

Donna Hutchinson1 Comment

By Karoline Kingston

Bee with pollen on its legs drinking nectar from a flower

In an unprecedented study, honey bees have been found to be the world’s most important single species pollinator in natural ecosystems. Working alongside wild bees, they are also said to be responsible for every one in three bites of food. For the smallholder farmer, befriending bees – both honey and wild – could mean more efficient, high quality pollination of crops, as well as pollinating wild plants for cattle and other livestock to graze on. The sale of honey could also provide a vital additional source of income. But the bees need human help in return; the global bee population is in decline due to the use of harmful pesticides, climate change and habitat loss. Finding a productive partnership between these small creatures and smallholders could benefit both sides. Continue reading →