Welcome to National Gardening Week 2015
“Gardens are one of the greatest things about the UK and we at National Gardening Week are passionate about them”, say the organizers of the country’s biggest celebration of gardening, which takes place from 13-19 April 2015. The National Gardening Week was launched four years ago and offers plenty of events and activities being run…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (15 Apr 15)
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 the first reports of Phakopsora pachyrhizi on soybean in Costa Rica and Malawi, the first report of corynespora leaf spot of Eucalyptus in China and a new report of sweet…
Update: Plant Health News (10 Apr 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the identification of genes that increase resistance to potato late blight, improved onion storage in Burkina Faso and the identification of a natural bacterium that kills plantain moth larvae. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
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…
Factsheet of the month: April 2015 – Trapping banana weevils
According to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Tanzania and Uganda, who produce almost half of all bananas in Africa, are only achieving 9% of their expected yield. This year sees the start of a 5-year project to develop high-yielding, pest resistant banana hybrids. Rony Swennen, the project’s leader, says that he hopes this…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (01 Apr 15)
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 the first report of Alternaria leaf blight disease on oil palm in Thailand, caused by Alternaria longipes, the detection of a virus affecting chilli pepper in Chihuahua, Mexico and the…
Plantwise Bangladesh in a new era of partnership: National Extension Officers trained as Plant Doctors
The Plantwise programme in Bangladesh was launched with the training for module 1 (Field Diagnosis and Plant Clinic Operation) and module 2 (Introduction to Plant Healthcare) for 32 extension officers in Dhaka early this March. The training followed the signing of a tripartite agreement between the Economic relation division, Ministry of Agriculture and CABI on…
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…
Update: Plant Health News (25 Mar 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including early reports on the damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, the first carbon neutral banana farm recognised in Costa Rica and training for Citrus farmers in Ghana on the use of technology to increase yields. Click on the link to read more…