From Islamabad to Egham: Sharing quarantine best practice to fight Parthenium weed in Pakistan

Biocontrol Research Officer Dr Kazam Ali from Islamabad has undergone an intensive week-long quarantine management course delivered by CABI colleagues in Egham, UK, as part of a joint focus on fighting the highly invasive and destructive Parthenium weed in Pakistan. Dr Ali, who works at a new quarantine facility built to create greater capacity for…
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Food for thought: Fungal biological resources to support international development – challenges and opportunities

Powdery mildew spores on wheat – the second most important food crop in the developing world after rice (Copyright CABI).
At first glance it might be hard to see how the exploitation of microbes, especially fungi, can have the power to help humanity meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), feed the world’s growing population and improve the bioeconomies of poorer nations. But a team of international scientists from CABI, the Westerdijk Institute and the…
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CAB Reviews hits 1000 articles with fall armyworm paper

Allan Hruska of the Food and Agriculture Organization has examined published studies to see which management options are most likely to help smallholders tackle the devastating crop pest fall armyworm
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Improving disease resistance in Kenyan crops

By Dr Charlotte Nellis, (NIAB EMR, UK)  It is estimated that globally two billion people suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients, termed ‘hidden hunger’.  Sub-Saharan Africa has a number of countries that have high levels of hidden hunger, including Kenya, which is ranked 2nd and 17th worst in Africa and the world, respectively.…
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The history of cultivating citrus

By L Gene Albrigo Citrus is one of the most important exported fruit crops. Large plantings in countries bordering latitudes 20 south and north and in-between provide fresh and processed citrus for the more populated northern European and American countries as well as other large populations around the world. Citrus has also been a cultivated…
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CABI hands over Phytosanitary Risk Management Programme (PRMP) to provincial stakeholders in Pakistan

By Umair Safdar, Communication Development Executive, CABI Central and West Asia (CABI CWA), Rawalpindi CABI in Pakistan implemented a USAID/USDA funded project ‘Phytosanitary Risk Management Programme in Pakistan (PRMP)‘ from 2014 to 2019. CABI’s scientific team upgraded the infrastructure at the relevant provincial agricultural departments and strengthened the capacity of Pakistan’s current agricultural system so…
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Village-based film screenings prove a popular way to reach and inform farming families in Northern Ghana

Duncan Sones, from the CABI GALA communications team, reflects on the first two years of the soybean campaign in Northern Ghana. In the last two years, there have been 346 village-based film screenings of films made by CABI to show farmers how to grow soybean. Take into account the use of Facebook for a music-based…
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Safer food in Pakistan through Aflatoxin control

By Dr Sabyan Faris Honey, CABI, and Deborah Hamilton, USDA Aflatoxin, produced by a poisonous fungus, is a serious threat to food security by contaminating many of Pakistan’s agricultural products, including cereal grains, chilies, dry fruits and nuts, and milk. Indeed, the average contamination in wheat and maize in Pakistan, for example, is five and…
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The Fertilizer Optimization Tool: maximising profit from fertiliser

By Duncan Sones. Originally published on Spore. A quiet revolution in fertiliser recommendations has led to the development of a phone app that could make a positive contribution to tackling Africa’s depleted soil and supporting the growing demand for food in a time of climate change. Duncan Sones, from the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International’s…
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Video special: Dr Babar Bajwa talks about CABI’s work in Pakistan

In this video special Dr Babar Bajwa, CABI’s Regional Director – Central and West Asia, talks about CABI’s work towards helping partners achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals – including ‘Zero Hunger’ and ‘No Poverty’ –  in Pakistan. This includes reaching out to smallholder farmers with expert advice on integrated crop and pest management practices so they are better…
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