Mass rearing training strengthens papaya mealybug biocontrol programme in Kenya
PlantwisePlus has been working in collaboration with partners in Kenya to implement a classical biological control strategy to manage papaya mealybug (Paracoccus marginatus). The invasive pest has been devastating papaya crops in Kenya. A CABI study in 2019 found it caused an estimated 57% yield losses across five counties.
Consumer food safety perceptions, Kenya
Food safety is essential for food security. It is key to meeting many of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG2 ‘Zero Hunger’, SDG 3 ‘Good health and wellbeing’ and SDG 6 ‘Clean water and sanitation. Safe food is also critical for economic development. Food-borne diseases can keep people from working and prospering and can negatively…
More than advice: farmers say paid-for extension must provide a “bundle of services”
Agricultural advisory services are a critical factor to promoting agricultural development, and investments in extension services are potentially important tools for improving agricultural productivity and increasing farmers’ incomes, two desirable outcomes of food security and poverty reduction articulated in MDGs and SDGs.
Improving resistance of Kenya’s cabbage and kale crops to TuMV disease
A team of international scientists from CABI, the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), NIAB EMR (UK), University of Warwick (UK) and Syngenta (Netherlands) are seeking to improve the resistance of Kenya’s cabbage and kale crops to Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV). In the distantly-related Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa), a potentially durable TuMV disease resistance trait was identified by Professor John Walsh at the…