Water reform needed to feed Asia
Image: IWMI. Groundwater irrigation in West Bengal Last night, I watched a new BBC documentary on the challenges to food production in a world of changing climate and increasing population. The programme featured growing water shortages in parts of India (where drought has hit again this year), and how Western countries importing food from India…
Matt Damon and Water.org – working toward global access to safe water
Matt Damon (actor and H2O Africa co-founder) and Gary White (WaterPartners executive director and co-founder) have announced the launch of a new organisation – Water.org – which is focused on improving access to safe water and sanitation in the developing world. Water.org will help the nearly 890 million people without safe water and the…
Forest destruction threatens Kenya’s economy
Photo from Landcoalition.org East Africa's wildebeest migration, which crosses the River Mara and brings vast herds of animals into the Maasai Mara game reserve, is one of the great wildlife spectacles of the world. But the migration, and other iconic wildlife attractions including the millions of flamingos that Lake Nakuru in Kenya is famous for, are…
Is Europe blind to H1N1 (swine) flu?
This blog is about an article I read in the New Scientist entitled ‘Europe may be blind to swine flu cases’. The article deals with a point I raised in my previous blog posted on 1st May on H1N1 flu. Having flown back from a holiday in Canada, I started suffering flu symptoms the week…
The International Day for Biological Diversity
The 22nd May 2009 is 'The International Day for Biological Diversity'. For 2009 the theme is Invasive Alien Species (IAS) – a major threat to biodiversity and food production – and a research and knowledge provision area that we here at CABI are are highly skilled in. The majority of our scientists time is spent…
Ask our invasive expert a question today
Arne Witt is the coordinator for Invasive Species at CABI Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya. Arne is responsible for coordinating all CABI activities associated with Invasive Alien Species (IAS) on the African continent. He is also the current International Project Coordinator for the UNEP-GEF project, “Removing Barriers to Invasive Plant Management in Africa”. You can…
New ideas in global health biotechnology: the outpouring of creativity!
Can tomatoes be taught to make antiviral drugs for people who eat them? Would zapping your skin with a laser make your vaccination work better? Could malaria-carrying mosquitoes be given a teensy head cold that would prevent them from sniffing out a human snack bar?
Environmental impacts of Bt crops – on target or non-target?
Genetically modified crops containing a toxin gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis have been used by farmers for 11 years now. These Bt crops were designed to give the plants resistance to important pests. But might they also be harming non-target invertebrates? A study by Steven Naranjo of the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research…
Sri Lankan coconut farmers predict yields for future climates
Millions of people in the tropics depend on coconuts for food, raw materials and livelihood. Coconuts are also a high value commercial crop. But like any crop, coconuts are at risk of drought and other prolonged events. By using climate science and better agricultural forecast models, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI)…
Hygienic Honeybees to Save Hives
Back in November 2008, avid followers of hand picked……..and carefully sorted will remember my blog about how Rowse Honey were investing £100,000 in honeybee (Apis mellifera) health research, to be undertaken by Britain’s only professor of apiculture, Francis Ratnieks. Well, after months of research it seems that significant headway has been made to breed hygienic…