Drones for desert locust control in East Africa
The desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal), is arguably the most destructive agricultural pest, globally. During 2019 and 2020, the changing weather created conditions that are favoured by the desert locust for rapid reproduction and migration and led to the pest spreading through the Horn of Africa, East Africa, Arabian Peninsula,…
Reviewing and revising CGIAR’s Open Access and Data Management Policy and Implementation Guidelines
Timely and accurate decisions are critical to the success of food systems around the world. Accessible and well-managed data promotes more efficient research and greater visibility and transparency for organizations that conduct it. With this in mind, CGIAR promised to publish their research data openly and free from restriction through…
Enabling data access to support innovation in decision agriculture: soil health, agronomy and fertilizer
Healthy soil is critical to the growth of nutritious food and to farmers’ livelihoods. However, declining soil health is causing low productivity which leads to unstable food security and incomes. National systems can help farmers by sharing data and information on soil health which can then be used to make…
Improving soybean production in Kenya using digital and extension approaches
In Kenya, soybean is a key crop in helping to improve livelihoods and nutrition. However, production only meets 10% of the market needs due to the effects of poor agricultural practices and pests and diseases. To address these issues, this project will provide a frontier system that integrates Earth Observation…
Evaluating the mycoherbicide potential of a leaf-spot pathogen against Japanese knotweed
Japanese knotweed is a highly invasive weed that impacts severely on native biodiversity and local infrastructure in its introduced range. Whilst chemicals are currently used to control the weed, this approach is costly and unsustainable. Biological control is an alternative method. The damaging leaf-spot fungus, Mycosphaerella polygoni-cuspidati, which attacks the…
BioSpace: Using space-enabled remote sensing for long term sustainable growth of biopesticide use
Pests and diseases cause significant losses of crops around the world and are a significant threat to food security. In China and Laos, locusts affect over two million hectares of agricultural land and recently, the fall armyworm is becoming prevalent in China and Southeast Asia, already affecting 35,000 hectares of…