Reaping the harvest: Sustainable tea production in India picture special
Recently CABI scientists revealed that India’s tea – which accounts for around 27 percent of the world’s tea production and where in 2016 exports of 232.9 mn kg were worth Rs 4,493 crore, could be protected from devastating crop pests with more environmentally-friendly and sustainable biological controls rather than an over reliance on pesticides. In…
Trichogramma evanescens, a biocontrol agent to control apple codling moth in apple orchards – first record from Pakistan
Apple codling moth and apple spider mites are one of most serious pests of different fruits, especially its deleterious effects on apple trees, which poses economic threat to apple production in the region. Codling moth was recorded as the most serious insect pest of the apple industry in Balochistan when the project conducted a baseline survey in…
When a Hollywood star came to CABI
The online market place goliath, and newly emerging leader in film and TV programme production, Amazon, visited CABI’s centre in Egham, UK to shoot footage for a new Amazon Prime Original series called This Giant Beast that is the Global Economy. The globe-spanning docuseries brings the smart, stylized storytelling of Adam McKay’s The Big…
Why a global insect decline affects us all
Insects crucial for ecosystem functioning and food production A comprehensive review of insect declines around the world gives a stark picture of the scale of the declines and the consequences both for ecology and human welfare. The paper, published in Biological Conservation, warns that 40% of the world’s insect species could become extinct within a few…
‘Cracking the code’ of woody weed spread with machine-learnt algorithms
A scientific tool which has its principles in early ‘computers’ such as the German WW2 Enigma machine – used to convey secret commercial, diplomatic and military communication – is helping to map the fractional cover of the woody weed Prosopis juliflora across the Afar Region of Ethiopia. PhD Candidate Hailu Shiferaw from Addis Ababa University,…
Meet the ‘sorcerer’ and her ‘apprentice’ – just two of CABI’s trailblazing female scientists
To mark the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science we take a look at how two generations of female scientists are coming together to tackle non-native invasive weeds and help reduce environmental degradation Meet the ‘sorcerer’ and her ‘apprentice’ Dr Carol Ellison, a plant pathologist at CABI, and Project Scientist and PhD…
“The future for women (in science) is ours to conquer”
To mark the forthcoming UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February 2019), we speak to some of CABI’s women working in science. In this blog Catherine Mloza Banda, a Development Communications Specialist – Invasive Species Management, reveals the motivation and inspiration behind her career in science communications and says ‘the future for women (in science)…
“I was and still am motivated by discoveries and surprises that come with science”
To mark the forthcoming UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February 2019), we speak to some of CABI’s women working in science. In this blog Lucy Karanja, a Content Manager, reveals the motivation and inspiration behind her career in science communications and says ‘women are all round scientists naturally’. What motivated…
Can a ‘diet’ of digital data really help feed the world?
Last week (29 January 2019) CABI was awarded a $1.49 million grant from the Gates Foundation to work with them to help increase food security in India and Ethiopia through better access to data on soil health, agronomy and fertilizers. In this blog Communications Manager Wayne Coles looks at whether or not the use of…
The demise of banana has been greatly exaggerated, but…
By David R Jones The demise of the banana has been in the news regularly since a 2003 article in The New Scientist suggested that the crop may be extinct within 10 years. However, recent data indicate that between 2000 and 2017, global production of bananas grew at a compound annual rate of 3.2%, reaching…