A lesson in ‘resilience’: realities and misconceptions
Resilience is trending. Touted as the answer to virtually every problem it is used, and too often misused, in all sorts of ways. “Bouncing back” from some disturbance is probably the most common. And that is NOT resilience. Bouncing back to just like before means that nothing was learned. Resilience is about changing in response…
Is chocolate under threat?
Otherwise known as ‘the food of the gods’ Theobroma Cacao is cocoa - the key ingredient from which chocolate is produced. The various species of cocoa such as Criollo and Forastero mainly originate from the Amazon jungle and are planted and produced in Colombia, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Indonesia, Ghana, Ecuador and Nigeria
“It’s science that solves problems”
I love science because it allows me explore my dreams. Agricultural science is about finding solutions for farmers, helping them reduce diseases in their fields and increase their yields so that they lose less and gain more.
Pesticide Management Bill 2020 dawns a new era of sustainable agriculture in India
India is among the leading producers of pesticides in Asia. The Insecticides Act 1968 was brought into force with effect from August 1971 with a view of regulating the import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and use of insecticides in order to prevent risk to human beings and animals, Dr Malvika Chaudhary writes. The Central Insecticides…
Investigating a way to reduce the cost of poultry feed in Ghana
Ghana imports poultry meat to the tune of about US $374 million every year. This is because local production of poultry is hampered by the high cost of protein feed for chickens- representing 70% of total production cost.
First biological control laboratory created in Pakistan to research poisonous aflatoxins
The first biological control laboratory to research poisonous aflatoxins has been created in Pakistan as part of a collaboration between CABI and the Crop Diseases Research Institute (CDRI) at the nation’s National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC). The facility, under the Aflatoxin Control Programme in Pakistan, aims to ensure the state of food security in the…
The Legume Alliance
Reblogged from N2Africa. Back in 2015, a group of like-minded organizations came together to explore the idea of forming an alliance to improve the information provided about improved legume techniques for farmers. The idea of this Legume Alliance was to test a new integrated approach to developing and sharing agricultural information. Farmers did not always…
Field trials of biocontrol product are paving way for aflatoxins control in Pakistan
By Dr Sabyan Faris Honey, CABI, and Deborah Hamilton, USDA CABI as lead implementing partner along with its technical partner, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) is working on a public-private partnership program led by U.S. company, Ingredion and its Pakistani subsidiary, Rafhan Maize to protect health and nutrition of Pakistan’s citizens by keeping food supply…
Food for thought: Fungal biological resources to support international development – challenges and opportunities
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…
Improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and food security through insects for feed
By Solomon Agyemang Duah, Communications Specialist at CABI based in Ghana Poultry farming is practised by almost all smallholder farmers in West Africa but feed and in particular protein sources are becoming increasingly expensive thereby, affecting meat and egg production, reducing family incomes and, ultimately, putting food security at risk. Fish farmers are suffering a…