Update: New Pest & Disease Records (8 July 2022)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include two new species of Plasmopara affecting wild grapes in the USA and the first report of rust disease on Potentilla indica caused by Phragmidium duchesneae in Japan.
Plant doctor training: a student’s perspective
Swagata Saikia, a PhD Scholar in Plant Pathology, recently participated in a Plant Doctor training course. Here Swagata talks about her experiences during the course. One fine day, I arrived at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Titabor, along with five of my friends for a training course entitled “Becoming a Plant Doctor”. Other PhD students,…
Anthracnose: How to identify, prevent and treat the harmful fungi
This article was originally published on the CABI BioProtection Portal blog. Visit the original blog post here. Anthracnose is a catch-all, general term. It describes the damage caused to plants by a group of fungal diseases. Anthracnose includes harmful fungi that attack lots of different plant species. This includes fruits, vegetables, flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees.
International Day of Plant Health helps highlight CABI’s work to fight devastating crop pests
International Day of Plant Health – recently established by the United Nations and welcomed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – is a timely reminder of the devastating impact of crop pests, writes Dr Ulli Kuhlmann, PlantwisePlus Programme Executive and Executive Director, Global Operations at CABI.
Digital learning courses available for free in Bangladesh
CABI’s new digital learning platform, the CABI Academy, is now available free for users in Bangladesh. The digital learning courses are designed for agricultural extension and advisory service providers. They provide interactive exercises and resources to help participants grow their knowledge, so they can deliver the best possible advice to farmers.
Women in Science: CABI scientist Sathis Sri Thanarajoo
Women can, and should, play an equal role in the future of agriculture. However, they are often overlooked, particularly in agriculture and science. Gender and youth is one of CABI’s key themes. Constituting to Sustainable Development Goal 5, CABI’s goal is to create opportunities for women and young people in agriculture. To mark ‘International Day…
What’s on the horizon?
Pests do not recognise borders. With the increased movement of people and goods, comes the increased risk of pests moving from one geographic area to another. For this reason, it is important to identify and categorize species that are likely to enter a particular geographic area from another geographic area. CABI’s Horizon Scanning Tool (HST)…
Hemp: a new crop challenged by old pathogens
One morning, my office phone rang. I picked up the phone and had a brief conversation with a hemp grower. She ran a small farm and had planted hemp for the first-time in one of her fields. With a good amount of investment, she had projected to harvest healthy flower buds at the end of…
How to diagnose a pest problem using the diagnostic tool
The Plantwise Knowledge Bank brings together plant health information from across the world. It includes a diagnostic tool, factsheet library, pesticide lists and pest alerts. For those seeking to diagnose a pest problem, the Plantwise Knowledge Bank’s Pest Diagnostic Tool is particularly useful, providing information to help identify the symptoms observed on a crop.
PlantwisePlus: safer plant protection products
Dr Belinda Luke is one of the Global Team Leaders for CABI’s new flagship programme PlantwisePlus. Her role within the programme is to oversee the development of local production and distribution systems, for less harmful, biological plant protection products.