CABI Blog

Stella Agyemang, Professor Jozsef Kiss, Bulgan Andryei and Paul Chege (Photo: N. Nisha)

By Professor Jozsef Kiss, Szent István University

CABI has a long history of nurturing talented scientists who will one day join the bank of researchers with the shared interest of trying to help farmers lose less of what they grow to agricultural pests and diseases.

One only has to think of my colleague Dr Stefan Toepfer, an expert in biocontrol at CABI, who is currently supervising Szabolcs Toth – a PhD student at our Plant Protection Institute of the Szent István University in Gödöllő, Hungary (SZIE) trying to improve our understanding behind successes and failures in controlling western corn rootworm in Europe and North America.

Or Patrick Fallet – a PhD student at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland who is looking at ways of encapsulating and applying entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) to better combat the Fall Armyworm in Africa. Dr Toepfer is also working alongside me teaching and supervising BSc, MSc and PhD students as part of his adjunct professorship at the Szent István University.

Every year international PhD students in plant science, including plant protection, are financed through the Stipendium Hungaricum and take part in the advanced Integrated Pest Management (IPM) course at the Plant Protection Institute of the Szent István University in Gödöllő, Hungary (SZIE).

As part of the course, students review international key players in IPM – such as the ENDURE Network of Excellence or the European Coordinated IPM Project C-IPM, FAO, IOBC, or EPPO.

Annually, a student also reviews CABI’s activities in pest management and sustainable agriculture. This year Stella Agyemang Duah, from Ghana, prepared and presented a talk about CABI to her student colleagues.

It is somewhat astonishing that most international PhD students in Hungary know very well about CABI’s activities in their home countries – such as Nisha Nisha from India or Paul Chege from Kenya. Bulgan Andryei, from Mongolia, sums up the experience well when she says, “this course is a nice example of how CABI and SZIE can bring together young scientists from various parts of the world.”

Additional information

Students interested in the advanced Integrated Pest Management course at the Plant Protection Institute of the Szent István University in Gödöllő, Hungary (SZIE), should contact Professor Kiss at Jozsef.Kiss@mkk.szie.hu

Read more about Patrick Fallet’s work in the story ‘PhD student joins the fight against devastating Fall Armyworm pest.’

Find out how CABI helps train the agricultural scientists of tomorrow at the Szent Istvan University in this story ‘CABI helps train agricultural scientists of tomorrow as part of six-day course in Hungary.’

CABI also coordinates, together with the University of Neuchâtel, a Masters of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Integrated Crop Management with the support of the Canton of Jura, the CABI-led Plantwise programme and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Find out more here.