World Food Day 2018 – Feeding our appetite for food security
By Dr Dennis Rangi – Director General, Development at CABI based in Nairobi, Kenya On this World Food Day 2018 the issue of feeding the world has never been in sharper focus. By 2050, agriculture will need to produce almost 50 percent more food, feed and biofuel than it did in 2012 just to meet…
PRMP in Pakistan: perspectives of government officials of Balochistan
By Dr Umair Safdar, Development Communication Executive, CABI Pakistan A Phytosanitary Risk Management Program (PRMP) in Pakistan is implementing a biological control program for pests of concerns in the Sindh, Gilgit and Skardu regions – with the aim of helping farmers grow more and lose less to invasive species. In Balochistan, PRMP has established a Biological…
Sowing the ‘seeds’ for the agricultural scientists of tomorrow
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…
Kerala flooding: Agricultural impacts and environmental degradation
Last month, the south Indian state of Kerala experienced record level rainfall. A huge 310mm of rainfall in just 24 hours, resulted in devastating flooding, causing significant damage to infrastructure, agricultural systems and human life. With over 480 people confirmed to have been killed due to the flooding, experts are now identifying the causes of…
Loved and loathed: the bitter-sweet attraction of the world’s cacti in sharp focus
Depending on which side of the fence you sit, cacti, in all its various forms, are either loved or loathed as ornamental delights or prickly pests that can devastate ecosystems, wildlife, and livelihoods. The issue was in the spotlight recently when an article published on the BBC News Science & Environment website ‘Prickly cactus species…
Exciting imaginations: New media formats to reach women and young people with agricultural extension messages
Campaigns create greater equality of access to information across farming households, but formats are as important as channels, argue Duncan Sones of the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC) delivery team… The ASHC campaign-based approach explored the use of a variety of channels to build multiple media campaigns. ASHC has been testing the hypothesis that the…
Developing a sustainable bamboo industry
By Zhu Zhaohua, formerly Chinese Academy of Forestry, China and Jin Wei, International Bamboo and Rattan Organization Bamboo is a fast-growing, renewable, non-timber and non-herbal plant. It has high biomass productivity, CO2 absorption and sequestration capacities, and high soil and water conservation capacity. In the lengthy history of its utilisation, its contributions to human beings…
Boosting cocoa production through improved pest management
Reblogged from ACIAR PNG is benefiting from integrated pest and disease management strategies that are reducing incidences of cocoa pod borer and ensuring profitable cocoa crops. More than 150,000 households in PNG depend on cocoa for their livelihoods. Families and communities rely on the income generated from their cocoa crops to buy food, making it…
CABI hosts the Common Framework volumes developed by the Tropical Agricultural Platform
Now freely available on the CABI.org website, the Common Framework on Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems produced by the Tropical Agriculture Platform. TAP is a coalition of more than 40 partners, initiated by the G20 in 2012. Its main focus is the development of national capacities for agricultural innovation. By helping to bridge the…
Empowering marginalized communities: Success story of Mr Maula Dad, an apple grower from Balochistan
Balochistan province is famous for producing apples, contributing more than 80% to the total apple production in Pakistan, and therefore has a significant impact on the household income of farmers in the region. However, apples are also prone to infestation by a number of different pests, of which the apple codling moth (Cydia pomonella) is of…