Using natural solutions to overcome crop toxins and increase Pakistan’s maize production
On World Food Safety Day, 7 June, we look at how a natural solution to a maize toxin is helping to safeguard Pakistan’s food security and smallholder farmer incomes. Aflatoxin contamination presents a severe threat to Pakistan’s population including its smallholder farmers, writes Dr Babar Bajwa, Senior Regional Director – Asia, CABI. They cause serious…
CABI Culture Collection plays key role in new research investigating multiple outbreaks of coffee wilt disease
The CABI Culture Collection – which contains over 30,000 living strains from 142 countries – has played a key role in new research from scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford investigating multiple outbreaks of the host-specific coffee wilt pathogen Fusarium xylarioides.
Three years on, the Good Seed Initiative still reaps rewards for farmers in Tanzania
A CABI study brief has shown that three years on, the Good Seed Initiative is still reaping rewards for farmers in Tanzania, writes Dr Monica Kansiime, Scientist-Agricultural Economist, CABI. The study entitled Perspectives on sustainability of smallholder seed enterprises: a case study of African indigenous vegetables in Tanzania reveals how this initiative was instrumental in…
Overcoming the challenges and complexities of posting preprints
On 29 April, CABI co-hosted an event about preprints with ASAPbio. This open-access webinar considered trends in agriculture and plant science and reviewed aspects of posting preprints, including their benefits, how they fit more broadly into science communication and how they help us tackle collective challenges around climate change and food security. To learn more…
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…