Yesterday’s bread against food waste
Contributed by Äss-bar New initiative against food waste launches in the Swiss capital According to a recent report by UNEP and the World Resources Institute (WRI), each year about 1/3 of all food produced worldwide, worth around US$1 trillion, gets lost, spoiled or wasted in food production and consumption systems. This means not only an…
And so, farewell to CPM10
Contributed by Roger Day, CABI With a delicate tap of her wooden gavel, chairperson Ms Kyu-Ock Yim signalled adoption of the report of the 10th Session of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM10) late on Friday afternoon. Delegates applauded; with satisfaction, with relief, in appreciation of the chair? Perhaps a bit of everything. Ms Yim…
Perú: Una visita al campo con los Doctores de Plantas en Huamanga-Ayacucho
Texto escribido por los doctores de planta de la Estación Experimental Agraria Canaán (INIA): Victoriano Eduardo Núñez Cuba, Melancio Huamani García y Aníbal N. Huarancca, y editando por Léna Durocher-Granger (CABI-UK). English summary follows El Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA), organismo público adscrito al Ministerio de Agricultura y Riego, a través de la Estación Experimental…
World Planting Day – 21 of March 2015
According to the astronomical definition, the first day of spring in 2015 is on March 20. When spring starts, nature also awakes! Not surprisingly, many favoured vegetables in Europe are sown in spring. That is why on March 21 we celebrate the World Planting Day. Urban gardening brings planting back to the cities Recently, the…
Electronic noses and other pest detection tech at CPM10
Contributed by Roger Day, CABI Some of the latest gadgets and gizmos for detecting plant pests were demonstrated and discussed at the 10th Session of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures on Thursday. Inspecting for pests, whether in the field or in consignments, can be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. So anything…
Beware! Pests on the high seas
Contributed by Roger Day, CABI If you put all the shipping containers in the world end to end, the line would go round the world 5 times. So a problem with a very small proportion of them is still a pretty big problem. One such problem is that when a container is being packed with…
Tuta absoluta on the rampage in Africa
Plantwise plant doctors have been helping farmers in Kenya to identify and manage the devastating invasive tomato pest, Tuta absoluta.
Perú: Dos nuevas clínicas de plantas para los agricultores Lambayecanos
Autores: Martha Passador (CABI) y Juan Pablo Gonzáles (EEA Vista Florida) English summary follows Debido a las necesidades de asistencia en algunos puntos más lejanos de la región de Lambayeque en Perú, y mediante dos nuevos módulos de asistencia técnica, en el cual las Clínicas de Plantas forman parte del componente de diagnóstico y recomendación…
Mobile data collection – can it work in Tamil Nadu, India?
Over the past year, the Plantwise Knowledge Bank team has been conducting an e-plant clinic pilot in Kenya. Following the success of this pilot, we are now seeing if we can apply the lessons learnt in Kenya to other Plantwise countries. In December, we travelled to Thanjavur city, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India,…
Plant virus found in ancient reindeer poo
Virologists that work on detecting new animal and human viruses have successfully extracted two 700-year-old viruses from frozen remains of caribou faeces in the north of Canada.