Update: Plant Health News (25 May 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Deadly fungus threatens Latin American cocoa crop African Agriculture, 23 May 2011 US: Infection lets whiteflies thrive Fresh Plaza, 17 May 2011 Farming Tips Reach Developing World Via Cell Phone VOANews.com, 16 May 2011 Molecular technique advances soybean rust resistance research ACES News, 16 May 2011…
Update: Plant Health News (11 May 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: It Takes a Community of Soil Microbes to Protect Plants from Disease ScienceDaily, 7 May 2011 Disease-resistant coffee stuck in Ugandan labs SciDev.Net, 9 May 2011 Study Shows Corn Gene Provides Resistance to Multiple Diseases North Carolina State University news room, 5 May 2011 Long-term prospects…
CABI publishes third working paper
CABI’s own, Matthew Cock, covers strategic entry points for funding taxonomic support to agriculture in developing countries in the third working paper published by CABI. The importance of taxonomy to agriculture is discussed, with emphasis on how to address the need for taxonomic support in developing countries. One of the subjects explored by this paper…
Climate change and the fight against plant diseases
Earlier this month, Dr Adrian Newton from the James Hutton Institute spoke about the implications of climate change for pathogen defence in plants, at the Society for General Microbiology Spring Conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, UK. He explained, “The communities of microbes on plants are complex and include harmless and beneficial organisms as well as…
Wheat rust and climate change – a possible connection
A possible link between wheat stripe rust and climate change was observed by researchers meeting at the International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium, which convened in Aleppo, Syria last week. The symposium organised by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) aimed to review the current global status of wheat stripe rust…
Update: Plant Health News (27 Apr 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Missing link in plant defense against fungal disease found ScienceDaily: Latest Science News, 25 April 2011 GM banana resistant to fungus shows promise SciDev.Net, 20 April 2011 Eradication Declared In South Florida Fruit Fly Fight Growing Produce – Florida Grower, 20 April…
Aid donors join forces to fight wheat rust
Emerging strains of stem rust disease of wheat, such as Ug99, are spreading out of East Africa and threatening the world’s wheat supply. But the fight against this disease received a boost this week from a collaboration between the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The organisations have…
Hessian fly heading for the sack
Wheat crops suffer millions of dollars’ worth of damage each year due to the hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor. The most effective control method is genetic resistance, when wheat resistance genes cause death of the attacking larvae by activating a defense response against avirulent hessian flies. Unfortunately this has led to flies that can overcome resistant…
California on alert against citrus psyllid
The detection of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) in a citrus grove in Ventura County, California, has set alarm bells ringing in the Californian citrus industry, and led to the imposition of a quarantine in the County just as the citrus harvest was getting under way. The psyllid, now found throughout Florida and present…
How will climate change affect plant health?
As weather patterns shift around the world due to changing climates, so this brings new challenges to crop protection. Pests and diseases can become a problem in new areas, or appear earlier, making it necessary to change crop protection practices. Conversely, some pests and diseases may become less of a problem as conditions become less…