BioProtection Portal benefits showcased at BioProtection Day conference

BioProtection Portal home page
CABI has showcased the benefits of the CABI BioProtection Portal during a special Bioprotection Day conference in Brazil held virtually in collaboration with Embrapa Soja the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation. The CABI BioProtection Portal is a free web-based tool that enables users to discover information about registered biocontrol and biopesticide products around the world and…
Read Further

Hemp: a new crop challenged by old pathogens

Hemp plant with leaf upward curl and severe stunting
One morning, my office phone rang. I picked up the phone and had a brief conversation with a hemp grower. She ran a small farm and had planted hemp for the first-time in one of her fields. With a good amount of investment, she had projected to harvest healthy flower buds at the end of…
Read Further

Update: New Pest & Disease Records (9 September 2021)

We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include a report of a new root-knot nematode parasitizing grape in Yunnan and a new species of Echidnodella from India.
Read Further

How Insect Saliva is Helping Crops Protect Against Pest Damage

Beet pod borer
A new study has unlocked the hidden ways in which important cash crops such as cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) tackle localised pest invasion and damage using natural defence mechanisms. Insights such as these are key for the future protection of our global agricultural production in the light of increasing pest outbreaks and crop damage.
Read Further

Webinar: Ozone pollution’s threat to tropical agriculture

ozone damage on bean leaf
Ground-level ozone is one of the most widespread pollutants in the world. Although ozone in the upper atmosphere provides essential protection from the sun’s harmful rays, at ground-level it has a number of harmful effects. Ground-level ozone pollution contributes to climate change, impairs human health and damages vegetation. 
Read Further

How to diagnose a pest problem using the diagnostic tool

Diagnose a fall armyworm pest problem
The Plantwise Knowledge Bank brings together plant health information from across the world. It includes a diagnostic tool, factsheet library, pesticide lists and pest alerts. For those seeking to diagnose a pest problem, the Plantwise Knowledge Bank’s Pest Diagnostic Tool is particularly useful, providing information to help identify the symptoms observed on a crop.
Read Further

PlantwisePlus: safer plant protection products

Dr Belinda Luke
Dr Belinda Luke is one of the Global Team Leaders for CABI’s new flagship programme PlantwisePlus. Her role within the programme is to oversee the development of local production and distribution systems, for less harmful, biological plant protection products.
Read Further

What is the Plantwise Knowledge Bank?

Plantwise Knowledge Bank
The Plantwise Knowledge Bank is a free online resource that gathers plant health information from across the world. Over 15,000 pieces of content, which include, pest management decision guide’s (PMDG), factsheets for farmers (PFFF), species pages, photosheets, manuals and video factsheets in over 100 languages.
Read Further

PlantwisePlus: detecting and responding to plant health threats

Dr Ivan Rwomushana
Invasive species specialist Dr Ivan Rwomushana is one of the Global Team Leaders for CABI’s new global PlantwisePlus programme. His role within the programme is to strengthen decision support systems for the detection and response to pest outbreaks and plant health threats.
Read Further

Update: New Pest & Disease Records (5 August 2021)

blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include the first report of Didymella americana causing corn stalk rot in China and the First report of Lasiodiplodia theobromae causing decline of blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) in the Czech Republic.
Read Further