Helping to achieve sustainable agriculture in Myanmar
The agriculture sector in Myanmar is predominantly dominated by rice. It is a key commodity for domestic food security as well as a generator for export income, and in the future could have the potential to become a global rice supplier. However, Myanmar is susceptible to crop losses from pests, disease and insecticide misuse. CABI is working with scientists in Myanmar to promote green agriculture practices.
Proactive biocontrol of Spotted Lanternfly
The spotted lanternfly is an Asian polyphagous pest that feeds on more than 70 plants by sucking the sap out of from leaves, stems and trunks. It was found in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since expanded its geographical distribution. The damage caused by the pest, its sugary excrement and sooty mold has been devastating for the Pennsylvania wine industry – reportedly causing a 90% grape loss.
Improving the livelihoods of smallholder maize farmers around the Mekong
After rice, maize is the most important crop in the Mekong Delta. Insects including the Asian corn borer are a major threat to production. Fear of crop losses, together with a lack of alternative measures, can result in overuse of pesticides – posing health risks to farmers, consumers and the agro-ecosystem. This project will establish local production of an affordable biological control agent, the parasitic wasp trichogramma, which kills the eggs of maize pests.
Legacy of AgriTT programme lives on at Rwandan biocontrol facility to fight crop pests
The legacy of the Working in Partnership for Agricultural Technology Transfer (AgriTT) programme, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), is living on at a facility in Rwanda which is producing biological control agents to kill a variety of crop pests including the devastating fall armyworm.
CABI study identifies safer options for fall armyworm control in Africa
CABI’s experts in the biological control of agricultural pests and diseases have conducted the first major study of potential biological controls that could be used in the fight against the devastating fall armyworm which recently arrived in Africa.
CABI scientists to co-organise the global biocontrol conference ICBC 2018 for non-chemical fights against insect pests
CABI scientists will co-organise, together with Society for Biocontrol Advancement (SBA), Bengaluru, the ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi – a meeting of the world’s leading biocontrol specialists at the 1st International Conference on Biological Control (ICBC 2018) which will take place in Bengaluru, India from 27-29 September 2018.