The future might be bright, but it’s not looking so orange
Oranges – from Flickr by Rosino I start this week’s blog with a challenge for you: You are a smallholder farmer living in a remote village in Brazil. You have decided to grow oranges, a crop that has done well in neighbouring farms and provided a good income. It’s November and your crop is growing well,…
The problems of achieving food security for 1.6 billion people in China
It is predicted that the population of China will stabilise at 1.6 billion within the next two decades. In order to feed this many people, crop production will need to increase by 2% each year to provide the estimated 580 million tonnes of grain that will be required. Mingsheng Fan and colleagues have published a…
Bad date?
Date palm with Bayoud disease, Image from J. Louvet, Bugwood.org A bad date usually involves awkward conversation or an unfortunate incident with a hot cup of coffee, but for Algerian and Moroccan farmers there is a much fruitier issue at hand. Date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) have long-suffered the effects of the Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. albedinis fungus, which…
Update: Plant Health News (5 Jan 12)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Malaysia: Banana growers’ big headache FreshPlaza.com, 3 January 2012 Evaluation of Foliar Fungicides and Insecticides on Soybean in 2011 Crop News, 3 January 2012 iMetosTRAP: Alert automatic system for pest occurrence on crops FreshPlaza.com, 2 January 2012 Rwanda: Scientists to Help Fight Coffee Pest AllAfrica News:…
Update: Plant Health News (21 Dec 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Ethiopia: Tuta absoluta is extending its damage to the potato tuber Fresh Plaza, 20 December 2011 Kenya: Hope for avocado as country sets wasps on fruit flies FreshPlaza, 20 December 2011 Israeli green pest control FreshPlaza, 20 December 2011 Scientists crack locust…
Deck the halls with boughs of…Vascular-Streak Dieback?
As the supermarkets fill their shelves with an abundance of chocolate in anticipation of the festive season, the supply appears plentiful. For Indonesian cocoa farmers, however, the story is a very different one. 10% of global cocoa output comes from Indonesia, but this year the Indonesian cocoa industry has suffered from outbreaks of Vascular-Streak Dieback…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (15 Dec 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. Detection of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma brasiliense’ in a new geographic region and existence of two genetically distinct dnaK genotypes. Balakishiyeva, G.; Qurbanov, M.; Mammadov, A.; Bayramov, S.;…
Creating super banana plants in the fight against nematode worms
Scientists in the UK and Uganda are developing a genetically modified (GM) variety of banana that is resistant to nematode worms, which account for a high percentage of banana crop losses in Africa. It is estimated that the losses of crops due to nematodes amounts to $125 billion a year. Currently, nematodes are controlled using…
Update: Plant Health News (7 Dec 11)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest news stories about plant health: Whitefly, tomato growers find truce in new Texas variety EurekAlert!, 5 December 2011 Weather blamed for rise in violet root rot FWi – Arable News, 2 December 2011 Parasitoids Larvae in Caterpillars Affect Behaviour of Moths CropBiotech Update, 2 December 2011 Scientists Evaluate Effects of Bt…
Managing deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination in Fusarium head blight affected wheat
Fusarium spp. (particularly F. graminearum) causes a serious disease on wheat called Fusarium head blight. The disease affects the quantity and quality of grain and under favorable weather conditions can cause more than 45% yield losses. Symptoms include the appearance of tan or brown discoloration on spikelets resulting in white, shriveled kernels. Such infected kernels…