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By Sabrina Weiss
Gardeners commonly use nematodes to naturally get rid of harmful soil-dwelling insects. A new study published today in the journal Functional Ecology revealed that these insect-killing nematodes also produce distinctive chemical cues, which deter Colorado potato beetles and make potato leaves less palatable to them.
The C…
With assistance by Shuping Niu
Scientists in China are seeking to deploy an army of predatory stink bugs to battle a fall armyworm incursion that threatens to devastate the country’s grain crops.
The insect, Arma chinensis, is a natural enemy of fall armyworm, according to the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Scienc…
By Kollegala Sharma
The persistent pests of mustard plants in the Gangetic plain come raiding all the way from the Himalayas, a new study has revealed.
Researchers from the Kolkata-based Bose Institute have retraced the aerial path these marauders of mustard take and have found the exact route of their travel from the upper Himalayas down to the plain…
Yemen is facing a serious desert locust threat with widespread hopper band infestations that will cause swarms to form later this month. If conditions remain favourable, there could be a considerable increase in locust populations in Yemen during the summer that would further threaten the region – affecting food security and liv…
The aim of this study is to scrutinize the relationship between adaptation and resilience with reference to two Nepalese villages, Khumjung and Ingla, which recently experienced earthquake and pest attacks on crops, respectively. It does so through longitudinal comparative case studies based on data mainly collected through qualitative interviews with r…
This guide provides an overview of the effect of fall armyworm (FAW) infestations in maize crops in Africa, promising management options and the role of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for integrated pest management.
The first part of the guide summarizes basic technical information on the FAW; the second part describes in more detail how to integrate FAW m…
Climate-warming affects farmlands by increasing pests but not their natural predators, resulting in reduced crop yields, new research has revealed.
The study, published today in the journal, Molecular Ecology, provides the first experimental evidence of how the interactions between agricultural plants, greenflies and tiny parasitoid wasps are affe…
By Wei Zhang
Every time you see a ladybird beetle, you should tuck the bug in your wallet as they are prosperity-bringing lucky charms, according to folklore in many countries.
There’s a grain of truth in the old stories. Every ladybird in a cotton field in the North China Plain provides an economic benefit to farmers of at least 0.05 y…
By Krystyna Swiderska
Our new report, Smallholder Farming Systems in the Indian Himalayas, shows that farmers in the eastern and central Himalayas have experienced increasingly erratic rainfall, drought and floods, higher temperatures, and a rise in crop pests and diseases, leading to lower yields.
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But as our report shows, f…
By Hiren Kumar Bose
As climate change gathers pace, insects are proliferating across the world, which scientists say will threaten food production, particularly in bio-diverse countries like India
It is now becoming increasingly clear that climate change is affecting virtually all aspects of life, and one alarming dimension is the growth in the number…
The Fall Armyworm pest is continuing to sweep across the globe, having moved eastwards from their native Americas, onto Africa, before arriving in Asia only last summer, where they now threaten to cost farmers from India to Thailand, billions of dollars in lost production.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has convened a three-day meeting…
This profile provides an overview of climate risks in Malawi, including how climate change will potentially impact three key sectors in the country: agriculture; health and nutrition; and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The brief also includes an overview of USAID Food for Peace program area livelihood zones and weather trends and future climate p…
This paper aims to assess the potential global year-round distribution of fall armyworm and its impact on crops and livelihoods. This paper used evidence of the effects of temperature and precipitation on fall armyworm life-history, combined with data on native and African distributions to construct Species Distribution Models (SDMs).
Fall armywor…
"Now is the season to intensify the campaign against disaster. We have to have a serious programmes in disaster mitigation to sustain the no-life-lost thrust of the city government," said Herbert Bautista. The city noted a 'no casualty' record from the heavy rains during storm Falcon, reports the Manila Bulletin.
A new satellite data centre in Namibia will help farmers prepare for droughts, floods, bushfires and pests, reports SciDevNet.
"We can predict where the problems are popping up with regard to wildfires, grazing for livestock, water scarcity, or viability of crops", said Marina Coetzee, a researcher at EOSA-RTC and a senior lecturer at the polytechnic.