Collaboration between Plantwise and the University of Queensland
In 2014, Holly alerted our blog followers to the Plantwise factsheet library app, aimed to provide country extension workers with a portable electronic library of pest management factsheets. Since then, there have been in excess of 65,000 sessions of the app by our global users.
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (13 Jan 16)
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 Tomato spotted wilt virus of potato in Korea, Iphimeis dives (Crysomelidae) beetle occurrence in beans in the western Parana State of Brazil and the first report of…
Perú: Las clínicas de plantas en los periódicos locales
En las últimas semanas, dos periódicos peruvianos, Andina y Correo, han publicado artículos acerca de las clínicas de plantas Plantwise impulsadas por el Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) a través de la Unidad de Extensión Agraria de la Estación Experimental Agraria Santa Ana. En 2015, mediante la red de clínicas de plantas establecidas en…
Climate-friendly rice wins 2015 Popular Science award
A new strain of low-methane rice has won Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” award 2015 for engineering. The new kind of rice, known as SUSIBA2, has been developed by splicing a single gene from barley into rice plants to reduce the amount of methane the rice produces and, ultimately, the amount released into the…
Four new bee species described in Australia – many more remain unidentified
by Miroslav Djuric, DVM, CABI. Reblogged from CABI’s Hand Picked blog. Bee specialists from South Australia have described four new native bees. Three of these bee species have been described as having narrow faces and very long mouths, allowing them to feed on slender flowers found on the emu bush, a hardy native of the…
Tackling pests and diseases in Trinidad and Tobago [Video]
The latest episode of the Tech4agri web series focuses on a number of farmers who attended Plantwise plant clinics in Trinidad and Tobago and received follow-up visits from Plantwise and NAMDEVCO extension workers. As CABI’s Naitram Ramnanan explains: “We decided to follow up by visiting the farmer in the field and then realised that it was a pervasive problem in the christophene-growing areas of the…
Update: Plant Health News (06 Jan 16)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the invasive plants posing risk to food production in East Africa, a new tomato variety a hit with farmers in Australia and the use of botanical big data helping to predict how plant species will react to environmental change. Click on the link…
Factsheet of the month: January 2016 – Blast in Paddy
Scientists from the University of Delaware, USA, have recently uncovered critical information about the effect that deadly rice blast fungus has on rice plants, which could lead to more effective effective control measures in the fight against this disease. The team found that Magnaporthe grisea, the fungus responsible for rice blast, causes an increase in…
Tackling climate change and agriculture at COP21 – a look at the landscape approach
by Dr Trevor Nicholls, CEO, CABI At COP21 last week, the world’s leaders agreed on a way forward to manage climate change. Limiting global warming to less than two percent was undoubtedly a landmark decision and, for the first time, there was unanimous recognition that humans impact the climate and that humans must do something about…
Seasonal Factsheet: Christmas tree pests
In time for the holiday season, we’re providing you with vital information about the pests you may have inadvertently brought into your home with your real Christmas tree. While some of them may become active after being exposed to the warm temperatures inside, we should stress that none of these visitors are a threat to…