Burundi steps up training efforts to meet country’s need for more Plantwise plant doctors

Plantwise Burundi group
Burundi has been busy stepping up its efforts to train more Plantwise plant doctors to meet the country’s need to help more smallholder farmers grow more and lose less to potentially devastating crop pests and diseases. The East African country officially joined the global Plantwise programme since 2021 with major…
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USD $106bn finance gap in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia agricultural business

CASA image
The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (CASA) programme has published ‘The state of the agri-SME sector – Bridging the finance gap.’ The report estimates demand for financing, from around 220,000 agri-business SMEs in sub Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia at USD $160bn with banks, impact investors and other financial…
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MARA-CABI Joint Lab witnessed ‘outstanding progress’ in 2021 despite COVID-19 pandemic

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The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA)-CABI Joint Laboratory for Biosafety (Joint Lab) has reported ‘outstanding progress’ in all aspects of its business throughout 2021 despite challenges posed by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The Joint Lab – which was launched in 2008 by MARA and CABI, and is…
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CABI Academy digital teaching resources addressing agricultural challenges now available in Rwanda

CABI Academy
The CABI Academy, which addresses a multitude of agricultural challenges faced by smallholder farmers around the world, is now available in Rwanda – thereby helping extension workers to advise on how to best tackle issues such a crop-devastating pests and diseases. The full suite of courses and resources contained within…
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Study highlights ways to strengthen the Invasive Alien Species system in Zambia

Lantana camara
A CABI-led study has highlighted recommendations to help improve the invasive species system in Zambia including the establishment of a central body to coordinate Invasive Alien Species (IAS) activities and advocation of increased funding for the prevention, early detection, rapid response and control of IAS. ‘CABI Working Paper 27: An…
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CABI contributes to position paper highlighting plan to safeguard African biodiversity

Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria
CABI has contributed its expertise in a new position paper in the journal Nature – from the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) – which highlights the goals, priorities, and roadmap of the impressive Africa-led effort to sequence the genomes of plants, animals, fungi, and protists that are endemic to the continent…
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