How crop diversity could help secure our future food supply
Diversity within maize. Image source: Sam Fentress, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1293212 16 October is World Food Day (#WFD2016); this year’s theme is ‘Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.’ Jennifer Cunniff, plant scientist in CABI’s editorial team looks at how harnessing crop diversity is vital for us to meet the challenge. Of the wide…
Different explanations of mental illness in Jamaica: can we combine the traditional and biomedical to heal body and spirit?
Gordon Town Health Centre, Kingston, Jamaica. Image: H. Schwartz Today is World Mental Health Day [October 10th 2016], whose theme is "psychological first aid and the support people can provide to those in distress". An apt moment to publish the insights into Jamaican community mental health of our summer intern, Harpur Schwartz. In her…
Guaranteeing credit to coffee farmers in Ethiopia and Rwanda
At a time when the coffee sector is faced with many challenges, ranging from low productivity, high production costs, to the threat of climate change, it is crucial to remember those most affected. Approximately 25 million small scale coffee farmers and their families produce 70% of the world’s coffee and it is they who bear…
Author of the Month: Plants and Planting on Landscape Sites, Peter Thoday
“Plant a tree in ’73, Plant some more in ’74”. Those slogans mark the start of the public’s awareness and many authorities enthusiasm for tree planting. Of course our love of and respect for trees in both urban and rural landscapes, had been part of our culture for centuries but had somehow slipped out…
Why Latin America is nearer elimination of rabies than Africa
Latin America is doing far better at controlling and ultimately eliminating rabies from the region than Africa. Latin America uses dog vaccination; Africa relies on post-exposure prophylaxis. Can the lessons learned in Latin America be applied or adapted to Africa? At RSTMH “Challenges in Disease Elimination”, [September 12-16th, 2016], Dr Katie Hampson described the PAHO surveillance & management framework operating in Mexico and Brazil, devised to support the elimination of rabies in 25 PAHO countries, which could be adapted. Tanzanian researchers have developed a targeted surveillance system to improve case detection for the African setting where resources are constrained.
World Tourism Day: Tourism for All – promoting universal accessibility
World Tourism Day is celebrated on 27 September to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. In 2016, the theme of WTD is accessibility, and how to make tourism something everyone can enjoy. While accessibility is most commonly discussed in relation to people…
CABI joins the Africa Green Revolution Forum 2016
Image: The Plantwise stand attracts great interest from the AGRF audience CABI was among more than 200 organizations that took part in AGRA’s Africa Green Revolution Forum 2016 in Nairobi on 5-9 September 2016. The forum, which brings together stakeholders in agriculture from Africa and other parts of the world, was themed ‘Seizing the Movement:…
Stepping out in the countryside – how much is it worth?
Staff at the CABI HQ in Wallingford this week are making an extra effort to get up from their desks to walk around the building, and the surrounding paths and lanes may be seeing more groups of people than usual out for lunchtime walks. This is all down to a ‘wellness’ campaign in which…
Adapt – Amplify – Accelerate – recommends new report on rural development
According to a new report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) economic growth is not enough to transform rural areas in developing countries; governments need to develop inclusive policies and tailor investments if they want to make a fundamental change in rural peoples’ quality of life.
South-south and triangular cooperation leads to Rwanda soil health breakthrough
"As we embark on efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we need to accelerate development momentum across the South, including by building resilience and mitigating risk." – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Message for the UN Day of South-South Cooperation 12 September is the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation. South-south cooperation (the exchange of resources,…