Plant doctor advice increasing availability of clean banana suckers in Kitema, Uganda
In Uganda the majority of the young people are unemployed, and efforts to create employment opportunities within the agriculture sector are yielding little to no interest among them. Agriculture is not viewed as a viable employment sector, due to the perceptions that agriculture as a profession is labour intensive, results in high crop losses from…
Amid global soil crisis, governments struggle to reach farmers
By Fatima Arkin. Reblogged from devex. To help tackle nutrient deficiency and plastic pollution in India’s soils, the country has one of the best knowledge delivery systems and trained human resource power in agriculture research. And yet, over 59 percent of the farming households receive no assistance from either their government or the private sector,…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (04 January 19)
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 Fusarium oxysporum as the causal agent of wild saffron corm rot disease in Iran, a report on two new hosts of Prillieuxina winteriana (Ascomycota) and the…
Agricultural pest control by bats in Madagascar
A new study has brought to light how native bat species in Madagascar are playing an important role in the control of agricultural crop pests. If more attention and information was brought to this, zoologists from the University of Cambridge believe that bats could reduce the financial strain on farmers for chemical pesticide use as…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (20 December 18)
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 Polyphagotarsonemus latus in Saudi Arabia. The first report of Rhizoctonia solani from parthenium weed in Malaysia and a report on the Asian walnut moth in Turkey.
Plantwise Most Read 2018
With 2018 drawing to a close we take a look at the most popular articles on the Plantwise blog this year, along with some firm favourites.
El Puesto para Plantas de Achuapa, Nicaragua ayuda a mantener la producciĂłn de ajonjolĂ
Por Solveig Danielsen, Luis Medina, Patricia Castillo y Eduardo Hidalgo El ajonjolĂ es un cultivo de mucha importancia socioeconĂłmica para los pequeños productores de la franja del pacĂfico de Nicaragua. Desde principio de los años 90, la Cooperativa Juan Francisco Paz Silva produce y procesa ajonjolĂ para la exportaciĂłn de aceite a Estados Unidos, Inglaterra…
The Achuapa plant clinic helps to maintain sesame yields in Nicaragua
By Solveig Danielsen, Luis Medina, Patricia Castillo and Eduardo Hidalgo Sesame is a crop of great socioeconomic importance for smallholder farmers of the pacific region of Nicaragua. Since the early 90s, the Juan Francisco Paz Silva Cooperative has produced sesame oil, mainly for export to the United States, England and Japan.
Fighting hunger in West Africa with shrubs
Improving food production in drought-prone, insecure areas of West Africa is a major challenge and concern for governments and their respective communities. A new crop management system incorporating the promotion of perennial shrubs may be a key potential solution to such problems.
Bringing technical support to isolated ethnic groups in the Mosquitia region of Honduras
By Eduardo Hidalgo, Project Scientist, CABI South America The Mosquitia is a territory of 16,997 km², located on the Caribbean coast of Honduras and inhabited mainly by the indigenous Miskito, Tawahka, Pech, and GarĂfuna ethnic groups. Of the 100,000 inhabitants, 36% are Miskitos who depend mainly on agriculture and fishing. The Mosquitia is one of…