Plant Science

Collaborative effort in Kenya to manage the impact of scale insect in coastal region

Wayne ColesLeave a comment
Coffee production in Rwanda
Coffee is a value cash-crop for many in Africa but successful yields can be affected by scale insects including the coffee mealybug (Copyright Charles Agwanda/CABI)

By Fernadis Makale, CABI

Scale insects – such as the coffee mealybug and cassava mealybug – are some of the least studied group of invertebrates in East Africa. However, a collaborative effort has been made to address the threat they pose to smallholder farmers: despite their cross-cutting status as pests in all plant groups, crops, ornamentals, trees and weeds.

Several organisations* in Kenya including CABI, and in conjunction with the UK’s Natural History Museum, have joined forces to train up to 30 new extension officers whose role will include identifying scale insects and communicating theirs risks and how they can be managed with smallholder farmers.

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Colony of weevils safely in CABI Pakistan quarantine

Donna HutchinsonLeave a comment

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A colony of 200 Listronotus (Listronotus setosipennis) have been safely transported from South Africa to Pakistan. The stem mining weevil is a biological control agent against parthenium. CABI’s Dr Philip Weyl, with the help of Dr Lorraine Strathie (ARC-PPRI) successfully imported the weevils into the new quarantine facility at CABI’s Central and Western Asia (CWA) offices in Pakistan from South Africa.

The weevils arrived safely into their new home in Pakistan with “virtually no mortality” according to Dr Weyl. The insects have been put onto parthenium plants to start CABI’s own colony for host specificity testing of important plants in Pakistan.

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CABI publishes recommendations to fight scourge of parthenium weed in Central West Asia

Wayne ColesLeave a comment

Parthenium in Pakistan

CABI has published a new evidence note highlighting a list of recommendations to fight the highly-invasive parthenium weed which can have significant impacts on human health, the environment, livestock production and health and crop yields.

The report ‘Parthenium: Impacts and coping strategies in Central West Asia’, states that the aggressively-spreading weed, now classified as a ‘superior weed,’ is extremely prolific being capable of producing up to 30,000 seeds per plant – a key factor in its global spread to 48 countries including India and Pakistan.

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New pest risk analysis decision support tool in development from CABI

Washington Otieno7 Comments

Colorado beetle eats a potato leaves young.

A Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) allows National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) to assess risks posed by pests or pathways of quarantine concern, and identify options to manage those risks. Recognising that there was a need for support in the completion of PRAs, CABI, under its Action on Invasives programme, has designed and is developing an online PRA tool.

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CABI shares expertise on rubber tree blight in major new Amazon documentary series

Wayne ColesLeave a comment
Amazon
‘Without rubber, the economy as we know it ceases to exist’

CABI is today sharing its expertise on the devastating rubber tree blight disease – that could severely impact upon the world’s rubber production for essential items including tyres, shoes and the seals on a multitude of household and industrial items– as part of a major new Amazon documentary series now streaming.

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CABI shares expertise at workshop concerned with threat of invasive species to Gibraltar

Wayne ColesLeave a comment

UKOT.jpg

Dr Pablo González-Moreno, one of CABI’s senior researchers with expertise in invasive plant ecology, has joined a workshop of international scientists concerned with investigating the invasive non-native species that pose the greatest threat to Gibraltar’s terrestrial and marine environments.

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