Factsheet of the month: April 2015 – Trapping banana weevils
According to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Tanzania and Uganda, who produce almost half of all bananas in Africa, are only achieving 9% of their expected yield. This year sees the start of a 5-year project to develop high-yielding, pest resistant banana hybrids. Rony Swennen, the project’s leader, says that he hopes this…
Plantwise going strong in Democratic Republic of Congo
Plantwise has been active in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2006. It has been doing admirable work with the cocoa growers of ESCO Kivu and the “Universite Catholique du Graben” in North Kivu province in the last 5 years. However, since November 2013, the focus has been on getting the central government figures of…
Julien Lamontagne-Godwin at a cacao depot in North Kivu, DRC
Whenever I am working in Democratic Republic of Congo, I always link up with our partner ESCO, a regional cacao producer and exporter, also active in Uganda.
Plantwise news update December 2012
The latest Plantwise newsletter is here. Click ‘Read more’ to find out about plant clinics being set up in Rwanda, the experiences of a plant doctor in DRC, and what plant doctor training really entails.