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…
Read Further

Taking action on invasives and youth unemployment in Zambia

Youth unemployment is a significant economic and social burden for Zambia. So too is the impact of invasive species on agricultural production and the natural environment. Are these mutually exclusive challenges, or can youth unemployment and tackling agricultural challenges, such as invasive species, be effectively positioned together to deliver jobs, food security and sustainable agriculture?…
Read Further

‘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,…
Read Further

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…
Read Further

“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)…
Read Further

“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…
Read Further

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…
Read Further

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…
Read Further

The twelve pests of Christmas (trees)

Read Further

Is parthenium weed allergy problem worse than that of annual ragweed?

By Asad Shabbir Parthenium weed and annual ragweed are closely related members of the Asteraceae, known for their high allergenicity. The detrimental effects on human health of the more temperate annual ragweed are very well known. However, those of the more tropical parthenium weed are less well known and in fact much more severe, affecting…
Read Further