Plant Health Archives - Page 6 of 15

Unlocking the diversity of microorganisms around banana roots

The human body hosts trillions of microorganisms both inside and on the skin. Many of them are beneficial and help in the digestion of food, making vitamins, and boosting the body’s immune systems, among other things. Similarly, for plants, the soils around the roots host diverse microorganisms, some of which are beneficial to the plants,…

The Drip irrigation system: The way to efficient farming

The IITA Farm Office experimented on an irrigation system, a project supported and funded by IITA management to minimize inputs and maximize output. Drip irrigation is a micro-irrigation system that is efficient in saving water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants from above the soil surface or buried…

Biocontrol reduces Maruca pod borer population by 85%

Scientists based at CGIAR-IITA’s climate change station in Benin are happy with the results of the just-concluded experimental release of wasps. These wasps, which are natural enemies of the Maruca pod borer, were released two years ago to go after the destructive cowpea insect. Results showed an 85% reduction in the population of the pod…

IITA launches IYPH website

By now, we know that 2020 is the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). Throughout the year, partners and stakeholders in agriculture shall increase awareness among the public and policymakers on the importance of healthy plants and the necessity to protect them in order to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty. To create more awareness, IITA…

OPINION: Africa’s devastating locust outbreak exposes need for crop science on all fronts

A perfect storm of conditions led to the locust attack currently tearing through East Africa and Pakistan, where countries are deploying pesticides, military personnel and even ducks. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has given the ultimatum of March to bring Africa’s desert locust outbreak under control, calling for US$76 million to fund insecticide spraying. Read more

Publication showcases 50 years of IITA’s plant health research

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), with the objective to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development. IITA joins the rest of the world in commemorating this. In 2019, a new…

How wasps are used to control the destructive cowpea pest—Maruca vitrata

Maruca vitrata, also known as Maruca pod borer, is one of the most devastating insect pests of cowpea in Africa. Its larvae stage, the caterpillar, is the most destructive and attacks flowers and pods of various legumes causing up to 80% yield loss. Farmers resort to inappropriate pesticide applications with some spraying the legume as…

Banana plants’ defense against deadly wilting disease may be in the soil

Fusarium wilt, a soilborne fungal disease popularly known as Panama disease, is one of the most devastating diseases of banana. It is responsible for the crop’s declining yield in the Great Lakes region of Africa, where banana is a major source of food and income for millions of smallholder farmers. The disease is spread by…

Spraying locust swarm is ineffective – IITA entomologist

As Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya battle huge swarms of desert locusts, great efforts are underway to control these destructive insects. These locusts, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are twice as big in body size and destruction potential. Verenado Meeme talked to one of our entomologists, Peter Neuenschwander about solutions that can bring…

Scientists develop effective tool for exploring the genetic diversity of the bacterial wilt pathogen in banana and enset in East and Central Africa

One of the diseases affecting banana in East and Central Africa and threatening the food and income of over 70 million people is Xanthomonas wilt (XW), a disease caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum (Xvm). The disease also attacks enset, an ancient false banana indigenous to Ethiopia, where it was first reported in…