Days are numbered for pests in Kenya’s irrigation schemes
Report by Peter Karanja and Abigail Rumsey Between May and July this year, 22 new plant clinics were established in Kenya. Nine of these clinics were launched by the Smallscale Horticulture Development Project (SHDP), which has been funded by the African Development Bank to help smallholder farmers increase the amount that they produce and earn…
Warming Climate Marches Pests and Pathogens Polewards
The distribution of plant pests and pathogens has been observed to be moving away from the equator towards the North and South poles and inhabit areas previously too cold for their existence. This threatens to increase the percentage of crops lost annually to pests and pathogens and subsequently raises major concerns over global food security. A…
Plantwise Photo Of The Month- September
This photo was taken in July when data management training and Module 4 training took part in Sri Lanka. Twenty-seven participants took part in the Module 4 training, in which methods for managing and monitoring clinic data collected at plant clinics in Sri Lanka were discussed.
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (21 Aug 13)
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 new species of rust fungus from India, the occurrence of Sclerotium rolfsii causing collar rot to Peperomia glabella in Argentina and the first report of the giant stem nematode Ditylenchus gigas from broad bean in…
Black Sigatoka Ravages Caribbean
Caribbean banana farmers are abandoning fields where crops have been badly affected by Black Sigatoka disease. Black Sigatoka has badly affected several countries in the region, including Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada and Guyana. Black Sigatoka is considered the most destructive disease of bananas and plantains and is caused by the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis. It first arrived in…
Open source seeds
“Open source software is accompanied by a licence that encourages people to share it and create new programs with it, and at the same time prevents anyone from releasing a program that uses the code under any other form of licence. The creativity embedded in the code cannot be privatised. Kloppenburg and a group of…
Herbicide Resistance Gene In Black-Grass and Rye-Grass Identified
BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) and Syngenta funded scientists at the University of York and University of Durham have discovered a gene called AmGSTF1 that plays a key role in controlling multiple herbicide resistance in black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) and annual rye-grass (Lolium rigidum). Now the gene that confers resistance has been identified, it…
How plant clinics are helping farmers in Puducherry, India
Plantwise plant clinics are currently operating in 31 countries in Asia, Africa and Central & Latin America. Thousands of farmers come to these clinics for advice on managing their crops, particularly crops that are being affected by pests or disease. The video below gives the story of a farmer in Puducherry, India, who got advice…
New Mapping Tool Tracks Insecticide Resistance In Malaria Carrying Mosquitoes
Progress in malaria control in the past decade can be attributed largely to a massive increase in the number of insecticide based management programmes targeting malaria carrying mosquitoes, using methods that include indoor residual spraying and insecticide impregnated bed nets. The effectiveness of these management techniques is now being compromised by insecticide resistant mosquito populations. In…