International Tea Day 2020: celebrating tea’s importance to our planet
International Tea Day aims to increase public awareness of sustainable production and consumption of tea; its importance in fighting hunger and poverty as well as improve the tea value chain. On this inaugural International Tea Day, CABI is honoured to celebrate the smallholder farmers we work with through countries with the systems and economies that rely on the production and commercialisation of tea to thrive.
Connecting with food systems: Research, knowledge and eco-environment approaches
Today’s world faces immense challenges in food production, making availability, quality, nutrition and affordability the main agenda in many developing countries, writes Dr Babar E Bajwa, Regional Director, CABI Central West Asia. Agricultural research has moved on from the task of ensuring availability of food towards attaining a successful food system that is perceived as…
Making a case for safer ways to fight rice pests in the Greater Mekong
Rice is big business in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) in Southeast Asia—not only as a vital source of food but also as a crop that provides work and income for 80 percent of the population. However, despite positive developments in the last decade, millions of tons are still being lost to pests, diseases, and…
AflaPak is on its way for maize growers to detain the toxic fungi in spring crop
In Pakistan maize crop of the spring season is more likely to be contaminated with the exposure of aflatoxin due to the favourable conditions; temperature (75.2-109 °F) and of relative humidity (62-99%) during the crop life cycle. To minimize the level of aflatoxin each country/region has its own version of non-toxigenic strains growing naturally in…
Q&A with CABI’s climate change manager
CABI envisions a world in which smallholder farmers can confidently face the challenges of climate, delivering ecosystem services for a climate-resilient future. In support of SDG 13: Climate Action, CABI is focused on supporting the uptake of climate smart agriculture. As such, this year we welcomed a new member of staff, Jonny Casey, as CABI’s first Climate…
Enjoy two weeks free access to CABI’s Crop Pest Diagnosis online course
CABI is providing two weeks free access to its Crop Pest Diagnosis online course to encourage knowledge expansion on healthy plants – supporting students and plant health specialists during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
Building a new world
Lawrence Alderson is the author of The Quest to Conserve Rare Breeds, to be published by CABI in August 2020. Dealing with the immediate and urgent challenges posed by Covid-19 understandably dominates the news channels. It demands priority. A threat of such global severity has not been encountered in living memory, unless you can remember…
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
CABI Confronting the Climate Crisis
The impacts of climate change will not just be experienced by our grandchildren in decades to come. For the 800 million of smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America, the hazards being driven by climate change are already threatening their lives, incomes, and yields. CABI is working across its centres and with its partners…
CABI Impact Brief showcases successes in capacity building for Better Cotton Initiative
A CABI Study Brief, entitled ‘Improving the safety and quality of cotton production in Pakistan’ shares findings on the impact of a CABI capacity building programme for farmers and farm workers involved in the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) in two Pakistan districts.