CABI News: September 2008

CABI News

issue 5 / Sept 2008

Climate change opens new pastures for crop pests
	"Changing weather patterns may help spread crop pests and diseases in the future", according to Dr Trevor Nicholls CEO of CABI. "There is an urgent need to help poorer, tropical nations devise strategies at the local level as they would be hardest hit by a changing climate" explains Dr Nicholls. We look at some of the options CABI is working on at the local level. Find out more >>>

Feeling the heat of food security

In the BBC's Green Room, CABI's Dr Peter Baker argues that reforming the economics of food production and supply would be beneficial for a number of environmental and social problems.

A key issue, he says, is understanding the energy involved in putting food on your plate. For example, tomato production in the US consumes four times as many calories as the calorific value of the tomatoes created.
Find out more >>>

Tomato production in the US consumes four times as many calories as the calorific value of the tomatoes created.

Improving the lives of Afghanistan’s rural communities

Farmers counting codling moth adult in trap

The people of Afghanistan have had a difficult time over the last few decades. Political instability and a weak economy, coupled with times of drought, have caused great hardship in a country where 80% of the population are dependant on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihood.

The Aga Khan Development Network has brought in CABI to help improve the agricultural system by using modern knowledge and technology. Find out more >>>

Treading on thin ice
CABI's forthcoming internet resource Environmental Impact raises issues about climate change. A huge plethora of information on the effects of humans on the biosphere such as global warming is widely available on the internet and elsewhere, but where can researchers go to separate the scientific fact from the hype? More >>>

Breakthrough in natural control of cotton pest in Pakistan
	CABI South Asia has reported initial success in a project controlling Pakistan’s most damaging cotton pest, the mealybug. Two natural agents have shown successful results in controlling the pest in field studies taking place across the country. The agents are an insect with parasitic larvae and an Australian beetle known as the mealybug destroyer. Find out more >>>