CPM11 kicks off at the FAO in Rome
Contributed by Melanie Bateman, CABI On Monday 04 April 2016, the 11th of session of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) kicked off in Rome. The meeting began with opening remarks from Mr. Daniel Gustafson, FAO Deputy Director General of Operations, and a hearty welcome to the new IPPC Secretary, Mr. Jingyuan Xia.
Tackling food security with urban agriculture
The world population is projected to increase by an additional one billion people by 2030 with Africa and Asia accounting for the greater share of this population growth. According to UN reports, more than half of the world’s population currently live in urban areas. By 2030, it is expected that more than 70 percent of the…
Update: Plant Health News (02 Dec 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including a boost for parasitic weed research in Africa from the Gates Foundation, benefits of modern farming come to Peru and a surge in climate change-related disasters posing a growing threat to food security. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant…
World Food Prize 2015
Earlier this month, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairman of BRAC, was awarded the 2015 World Food Prize, which honours contributions to the improvement of food supply. BRAC (formally Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) is the largest development organisation in the world and has been working to enhance food security and alleviate poverty since it…
Closing the gender gap for a food-secure future #AgGenderGap [Video]
In the video below, inspiring women share their views on closing the gender gap in farming under climate change.
Behind the scenes of Plantwise plant clinics in Uganda
PhD student, Andrew Tock, of the Warwick Crop Centre, has spent three months monitoring Plantwise plant clinic success in Uganda as part of a BBSRC-funded Doctoral Training Partnership. During this time, he kept a research diary (video above), describing his experiences in Uganda and the day-to-day work of plant doctors in the field. To read…
Update: Plant Health News (27 Aug 14)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including surveillance robots that can detect weeds and pest insects, a focus on gender capacity development in Ethiopia and smallholder farmers in Africa adopting practices to improve their field soil health. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
Update: Plant Health News (16 Jul 14)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the varying effects of rain on crops in Ivory Coast, the discovery of wheat genes that control boron tolerance and the projects managed by FAO that aim to improve food security in Africa. Click on the link to read more of the…
Update: Plant Health News (04 Jun 14)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the discovery of a microbe that could help control rice blast, concern over the effects of erratic rainfall on crops in Somalia and the discovery of a gene encoding resistance to stem and fruit rot of pepper. Click on the link to read more…
National Geographic Hackathon taps into CABI & Plantwise data
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ImHk2YwZU&w=560&h=315] Check out this video to hear how CABI contributed to National Geographic’s Future of Food Hackathon in Washington DC last weekend. CABI’s Dr Martin Parr and Dr Timothy Holmes of the Plantwise knowledge bank describe the type of open access data from CABI which was offered to participants of the hackathon, and how these…