World’s indigenous peoples to bear brunt of climate change, warns UN paper
Indigenous peoples around the world – the guardians of traditional knowledge systems and underutilized, forgotten crops that may yet prove critical for global food security – are likely to be hit hardest by climate change, says a United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) 2021 brief co-authored by scientists representing the Association of International Research and…
Tackling pests to boost Uganda’s blossoming trade in floriculture
Breaking down the barriers to international trade has never been more important. Flowers are a profitable form of income for many low- and middle-income countries. However, small-scale growers in places like Uganda face hurdles accessing the kind of information and technologies needed to improve the standard of produce to supply lucrative global markets like the…
Global rescue plan needed for fruit and vegetable diversity
UN Food Systems Summit 2021 brief charts a path forward to conserve precious genetic resources for future food crop options. The many fruit and vegetable species in food production systems contributing essential nutrients to human diets are under threat from land use, climate change, and other factors, reports a United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS)…
Preprints – Accelerating plant sciences and agriculture
In recent years, the use of preprints (pre-peer reviewed versions of scholarly papers) has accelerated. Many researchers now share their work with the scientific community before or in parallel to publication with a journal. In agriculture and plant sciences, preprints are becoming a more popular means for disseminating research findings and results. John Inglis, the…
On Earth Day, how does landscape composition and pesticide use affect pollinators?
On Earth Day, we take a look at landscape composition and pesticide use. Landscape composition is an important area of research in agricultural science. Understanding the relationship between cropland and its surrounding natural habitats, for example, can help to shed light on issues such as fostering natural, non-chemical pest control and reducing the use of…
Mainstreaming the Moruga Hill Rice tradition to expand green value chains in Trinidad and Tobago
With Earth Day taking place on 22 April, CABI scientist, Naitram Ramnanan (IAS Coordinator and Regional Representative – Caribbean and Central America, CABI) takes a look at sustainable agriculture in Trinidad. With an ever growing global population, sustainable agriculture – or agroecology – has become an increasingly important area of study and work. Many landscapes…
3 ways that preprints help researchers in agricultural and plant sciences
The use of preprints (pre-peer reviewed versions of scholarly papers) has accelerated in the last few years with many researchers now sharing their latest work with the scientific community before or in parallel to publication with a journal. After a slower start compared to other research fields, adoption of preprints in the plant sciences and…
Sustainable cotton production ‘through the eyes’ of a Better Cotton farmer
Mr Javed is a resident of the village Jameel Dall, union council Mir Imam Bux Talpur, in the district of Mirpur Khas in Pakistan. He has, since 2012, been one of the active farmers of CABI’s project to help improve cotton production which is run under the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).
CABI helps build capacity of government stakeholders in Pakistan to tackle aflatoxins with biological controls
Aflatoxins are powerful fungal toxins that contaminate many agricultural products, including cereal grains, chilies, dry fruits and nuts. They also well affect milk because some livestock feed contains aflatoxin. In Pakistan, aflatoxin concentrations in harvested grain frequently exceed the level permitted in countries where aflatoxin in food and feed is regulated. The Aflatoxin Control in…
GM Crops: The West versus the Rest
Why is it that countries in the West, particularly those in the European Union, but also in the Nordic countries and pockets in the USA, are so anti-GM crops?