Conservation farming: can it offset fall armyworm’s impact?
Conservation farming has been promoted in sub-Saharan Africa as a way to potentially improve yields while conserving the environment. Farmer livelihoods are increasingly threatened by climate change, declining soil fertility, land degradation, pests, and diseases. Finding sustainable farming methods that address these challenges is key to feeding a growing population.
Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease – the invasive threatening maize
Maize lethal necrosis disease (MLND) was first identified in Peru in 1973. Since then, the disease has spread rapidly to other parts of Latin America and the USA. In Africa, the disease was first reported in Kenya in 2011. By 2014, it had spread to other countries in East Africa including Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan,…
Benefits of Pest Risk Information Service highlighted at CODATA Virtual SciDataCon
The benefits of the CABI-led Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE) in helping smallholder farmers mitigate crop pests outbreaks, thereby boosting their yields and livelihoods, have been highlighted at the CODATA Virtual SciDataCon 2021.
What’s on the horizon?
Pests do not recognise borders. With the increased movement of people and goods, comes the increased risk of pests moving from one geographic area to another. For this reason, it is important to identify and categorize species that are likely to enter a particular geographic area from another geographic area. CABI’s Horizon Scanning Tool (HST)…
Watch the PlantwisePlus Launch Video
This week saw the digital launch of CABI’s new global programme – PlantwisePlus. The online event featured presentations from both CABI representatives as well as partner organisations, including FAO and the governments of Kenya and the Netherlands.
What is the 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.
PlantwisePlus: detecting and responding to plant health threats
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.
Webinar discusses sustainable management of fall armyworm
A webinar was hosted by the Department of Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Jammu and CABI to promote the sustainable management of Fall armyworm (spodoptera frugiperda). The informative webinar explored how this invasive pest can be monitored and managed in the maize growing regions of Jammu, Northern India.
Moving to more sustainable pest management with plant doctors in China
Overuse of pesticides for crop protection has been an increasingly common problem in farming, particularly in countries where they are affordable in comparison to other methods of pest control.
Why it’s so critical to continuously monitor and manage plant diseases
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Most of us understand the critical importance of monitoring the spread of diseases. And it is as important for plant diseases as it is for humans. Plant disease epidemics are often hidden from view, unlike human viral disease outbreaks. Yet food and forest production systems, as well as native…