Update: New Pest & Disease Records (12 November 2019)

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 reports on a species of aphid new to the Netherlands, the first records of Diaporthe gulyae, D. phaseolorum and D. eres in Russia and reports of a new defoliator species, Nematus…
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Submit your plant health, agriculture or bioscience papers!

PHAB 2020 banner
As many of our readers may be aware, the United Nations have declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health. CABI is pleased to announce that to promote a global conversation about plant health and the future of sustainable agriculture, we are organising a conference in collaboration with Koppert Biological Systems and Wageningen University…
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Personalised plant health advice from sowing to harvesting at plant clinics in India

Two plant doctors inspect paddy crop at a plant clinic in Puducherry, India
It has been proven that access to extension services is one of the key pathways to enhancing technology uptake, promoting innovations, and improving production among smallholder farmers. These studies have pointed out the very high rates of return (13-500%) of extension as an economically viable way to increase productivity and income. In fact, the same…
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Soil microbiome linked to disease resistance in crops

A recent study has unearthed the mystery of how plant disease resistance is linked to the soil microbiome. This new area of research will open up new possibilities for a more sustainable food production system and help combat global food security threats.
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Registration of red list chemicals halted in Pakistan thanks to Plantwise

Farmer sprays pesticide in the cotton field at the village Khudabad Chandia in Mityari, Sindh, Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Department of Plant Protection (DPP) promotes the transition to sustainable crop protection systems. It promotes an integrated approach for crop protection policies and practices within the framework of Sustainable Food and Agriculture. Through a series of meetings with officials of DPP, CABI’s Plantwise team has urged the department to enforce the regulations to minimize…
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A new pesticide is all the buzz

Rusty patched bumble bee feeding on wild bergamot
Bees’ fuzzy yellow bodies and hairy legs are custom-built for picking up pollen. Nothing can distribute the yellow powder more efficiently—something farmers that shell out for commercial beehives every growing season know all too well. And starting with this fall’s growing season, bees may be given some cargo to carry on their outbound journey to the blossoms: pesticides.
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Test your plant health knowledge

Birdseye view of a plant clinic in Peru. A plant farmer gives advice to a farmer on a crop sample.
>> Latest quiz just added Plantwise plant doctors are at the heart of our plant clinic network providing advice and information to farmers, logging their data for the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, and always adapting to new outbreaks and technologies. Think you’ve got what it takes to be a plant doctor? Take our online plant health…
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Update: New Pest & Disease Records (09 October 2019)

Brown weevil on green leaf
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 reports on a new Pseudococcidae species on Monterey cypress in Tunisia, the first record of Phenacoccus madeirensis mealybug in Algeria and two new species of weevil in the Philippines.
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Test your plant health knowledge with the plant doctor quiz

Birdseye view of a plant clinic in Peru. A plant farmer gives advice to a farmer on a crop sample.
>> Latest quiz just added Plantwise plant doctors are at the heart of our plant clinic network providing advice and information to farmers, logging their data for the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, and always adapting to new outbreaks and technologies. Think you’ve got what it takes to be a plant doctor? Take our online plant health…
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Improving resistance of Kenya’s cabbage and kale crops to TuMV disease

Female farmer
A team of international scientists from CABI, the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), NIAB EMR (UK), University of Warwick (UK) and Syngenta (Netherlands) are seeking to improve the resistance of Kenya’s cabbage and kale crops to Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV). In the distantly-related Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa), a potentially durable TuMV disease resistance trait was identified by Professor John Walsh at the…
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