Update: Plant Health News (27 Oct 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Finland: Colorado beetles could spend winter in fields Fresh Plaza, 25 October 2011 Kenya restricts banana seedling movements to contain disease FreshFruitPortal.com, 24 October 2011 Building capacity to overcome wheat rusts CIMMYT’s blog, 25 October 2011 Breakthrough for flood-tolerant crops Farmers Weekly, 21…
Update: Plant Health News (31 Aug 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Herbicide choice for high blackgrass dormancy Farmers Weekly, 30 August 2011 NZ: pest costs potato industry US$101M FreshFruitPortal.com, 30 August 2011 Banana threatened by old, new pathogens African Agriculture, 29 August 2011 Yellow leaf spot resource Australian Government Grains Research & Development Corporation, 29 August 2011…
Update: Plant Health News (4 Aug 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Researchers know their onions… NFU, 3 August 2011 Cotton ‘topping’ cuts bollworm infestations, study finds SciDev Net, 2 August 2011 Crop grazing shows promise as disease tool Grains Research and Development Corporation, 1 August 2011 EU sees the light on Epitrix NFU, 1 August 2011…
Update: Plant Health News (22 Jul 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: British wasps protect lettuce and celery from pests Plant Science, 20 July 2011 Modelling the root of crop disease Plant Science, 18 July 2011 USDA Restricts the Importation of Commercial and Noncommercial Quantities of Rice from Countries Where Khapra Beetle Is Known to Occur USDA-APHIS Newsroom, 14…
Predicting the effects of global warming on insect pests
It has been estimated that presently pests cause 30-50% of yield losses to agricultural crops in developing countries and these rates are likely to increase with climate change. Although much attention has been given to the impacts of climate change on insect abundance and severity in temperate regions, little is known about potential impacts in…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (13 July 11)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Click on the links to view the abstracts. A new disease in mango caused by Trichothecium roseum. ShiLan, H.; ZengLiang, L.; XiaoMei, L.; YiXian, X.; JinJiPankaj, P.; Sirohi, A.; Jain, R. K.; Singh, K. (2011) Journal…
State of severe food insecurity in Africa
On the 7 July the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) announced that an appeal to help more that 10 million people in east Africa, suffering from their worst drought in over half a century, would be broadcast on ITV, BBC, Sky, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Update: Plant Health News (22 Jun 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: New locust threat in Madagascar FAO, 21 June 2011 US: Tiny fly causes big trouble for Oregon’s fruit farmers Fresh Plaza, 20 June 2011 ‘Super wheat’ resists devastating rust SciDev Net, 17 June 2011 Weeding out Africa’s witch plant New Agriculturist, June 2011 U.S.…
Update: Plant Health News (8 Jun 11)
Here’s another taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Uruguayan scientists find apple decay pathogen fighter FreshFruitPortal.com, 7 June 2011 HortNZ hails govt biosecurity funding plan FreshFruitPortal.com, 6 June 2011 African Researchers and Farmers Begin Effort to Reduce Crop Loss from Striga Crop Biotech Update, 3 June 2011 Aflatoxin Infects 160…
Rising food prices could press the poor into hunger, warns Oxfam
This year, hardly a week seems to have gone by without the release of another report on global food systems and food security. Each has a different focus: in May there was an FAO report highlighting the problem of food waste, while earlier in the year I posted articles on the ‘Hand Picked’ CABI blog…