Green Muscle providing strength against devastating locusts in the horn of Africa
2020's climate has contributed to the Locust explosion CABI and international biological control producers Éléphant Vert are stepping up the fight against crop-destroying locusts and grasshoppers with a safe and environment friendly product called Green Muscle™ which is now being used in Africa. Around 20 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya,…
Study explores reasons why smallholder farmers in Kenya do not use more biopesticides
CABI scientists have conducted new research which provides new insight into the reasons why smallholder farmers in Kenya do not adopt safer-to-use biopesticides to protect their crops from devastating pests and diseases such as Fall armyworm on maize and whitefly on coffee. Kate Constantine led a team of researchers who…
CABI contributes to special issue on weed biological control with arthropods in ‘Current Opinion in Insect Science’
CABI scientists have joined an international team of researchers as part of a Special Issue of the journal Current Opinion in Insect Science which focuses on the present status and potential future directions of weed biological control using arthropods. Dr Urs Schaffner from CABI’s centre in Switzerland and Prof. Heinz…
Help CABI count the cost of invasive alien species to Africa
CABI is calling on a range of organisations working in agriculture to help them count the economic cost of a multitude of invasive alien species (IAS) – such as the Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) and tomato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta) – to Africa by taking part in a major new…
Farmers and fishermen believe livelihoods would be enhanced by removal of semiaquatic weed
Farmers and fishermen living along the Kafue River floodplains in Zambia believe that removal of the invasive semiaquatic weed Mimosa pigra would ‘considerably enhance’ their livelihoods, according to new research undertaken by CABI scientists and published in Austral Ecology. Dr Arne Witt, based at CABI’s centre in Nairobi, Kenya, led…
Biocontrol is most cost-effective strategy in fight against common pest pear Opuntia stricta
The cochineal Dactylopius opuntiae ‘stricta’ biotype is more effective as a sustainable biocontrol in the fight against the invasive common pest pear Opuntia stricta in Laikipia County, Kenya, compared to physical and/or chemical control – CABI scientists can now reveal. Dr Arne Witt, based at CABI’s centre in Nairobi, led…