Factsheet of the month: March 2015 – Tomato yellow leaf curl management
A recent plant protection conference in Hanoi highlighted dangerous levels of pesticide use in agriculture in Vietnam. The head of Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department, Nguyen Xuan Hong, announced that a 5-year Integrated Pest Management (IPM) project had been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. IPM will be important in reducing both costs to…
Update: Plant Health News (25 Feb 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the Giant African land snails invading Cuba, the debate over GM bananas in Uganda and a new report from the World Food Programme on connecting farmers to markets. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
Tuta absoluta, a new invasive invading India
Tuta absoluta (commonly known as tomato leaf miner) is a devastating pest of tomato which originated from South America. It can breed between 10-12 generations a year and each female can lay upto 250-300 eggs in her life time. This pest has been very quickly crossing borders and devastating tomato production in both protected and open fields.…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (18 Feb 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 passiflora root-rot of passion fruit caused by two species of Globisporangium in Japan, a study into grey mold and sclerotinia rot of okra plants and the…
Update: Plant Health News (11 Feb 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including Striga resistant maize yielding well in Kenya, scientists in the UK finding a potential way to control leaf blotch disease in wheat and a grant under the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) to help small scale rice producers by creating better linkages in…
Plant clinics helped improve my yield
I meet Rose Wanjiru Ireri in her 2.5 acre farm in Mbeere inspecting her crops. From the smile on her face, it is apparent that her plants are healthy. “I grow oranges, mangoes, cassava and vegetables on my farm. I also produce a lot of bananas for sale.” She currently has over 100 banana plants…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (04 Feb 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 stubby root nematode, Paratrichodorus teres from Iran, a new occurrence of rice grasshopper on lentil in Vindhyan plateau of Madhya Pradesh and corm and root rot…
Factsheet of the month: February 2015 – Sugarcane Woolly Aphids
India is one of the world’s largest producers of sugarcane which is used in many food and drink products. Sugarcane is vulnerable to a variety of pests, including sugarcane woolly aphids which caused a 30% yield loss in the outbreak of 2002. This pest is constrained to south and east Asia, (see the Plantwise distribution…
Update: Plant Health News (28 Jan 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including native ants helping to improve cocoa yields in Indonesia, unseasonal rains affecting crops in India and local mangoes in the Philippines declared free from mango seed weevil. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!