CABI

About: CABI is a nonprofit organization based out in Wallingford, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Introduced species. The organization has 789 authors who have published 1759 publications receiving 73843 citations. The organization is also known as: Centre for Biosciences and Agriculture International.

How promoting consumption of traditional African vegetables affects household nutrition security in Tanzania

Abstract: Traditional African vegetables have recently received considerable attention for their contribution to food and nutrition security and opportunities for enhancing smallholder livelihoods. Promoting the production and consumption of traditional vegetables is expected to enhance household nutrition among urban and rural households. The Good Seed Initiative (GSI) program promoted production and consumption of nutrient-dense traditional African vegetables in Arusha region in Tanzania to reduce malnutrition through diet diversification. We estimated the impact of promotion activities on households, women, and children's dietary diversity. The study used cross-sectional data from 258 and 242 households in intervention and control regions, respectively, and applied matching techniques and inverse probability weighting to control for unobserved heterogeneity and selection bias, which could otherwise bias the outcome estimates. We found that households benefiting from traditional vegetable promotion and demand creation activities had significantly higher dietary diversity of children under 5 yr and women in reproductive age. We found no significant impact of promotion activities on households’ dietary diversity. The policy implication is that scaling up promotional and demand creation activities to encourage consumers to grow and eat traditional African vegetables would be an important element in initiatives to increase dietary diversity, particularly for children under 5 and women in Tanzania.

Fungi associated with Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) in the upper Amazon basin and prospects for their use in biological control.

Abstract: Surveys were undertaken in 1998 and 1999 in the upper Amazon basin of Ecuador and Peru to collect and catalogue the mycobiota associated with water hyacinth in the river and lake systems. The results indicate that three groups of fungi, which occupy distinct niches on the plant, can be delimited: biotrophic fungi, colonising green leaf tissue, often without significant visible symptoms (e.g. Didymella and Mycosphaerella); necrotrophic fungi, causing prominent leaf lesions (e.g. Leptosphaeria, Colletotrichum, Myrothecium, Phaeoseptoria and Stagonospora); and fungi associated with and isolated from petioles previously invaded by coevolved insect natural enemies, such as Taosa and Thrypticus spp. (e.g. Acremonium, Cephalosporiospsis, Cylindrocarpon, Cylindrocladium and Stauronema). Some of these represent new host records, as well as undescribed taxa. A re-analysis of the mycobiota associated with water hyacinth worldwide reveals that most of the records originate from the USA and the Palaeotropics, where the plant is a major invasive species, and where, as a consequence, most research on its control has been concentrated. Fungal genera such as Alternaria and Cercospora, which traditionally have been favoured as biocontrol agents, seem to be absent or rare on E. crassipes in the Upper Amazon.

Field trials to evaluate the effects of transgenic cry1Ie maize on the community characteristics of arthropod natural enemies.

Abstract: Possible non-target effect of transgenic cry1Ie maize exerts on natural enemy community biodiversity in the field is unresolved. In the present study, a 2-yr comparison of transgenic cry1Ie maize (Event IE09S034, Bt maize) and its near isoline (Zong 31, non-Bt maize) on natural enemy community biodiversity were compared with whole plant inspections, pitfall traps and suction sampler. Natural enemy diversity indices (Shannon-Wiener’, Simpson’s and Pielou’s index) and abundance suggested there were no significant differences between the two types of maize. The only exceptions were the Pielou’s index for whole plant inspections in 2013 and abundance for pitfall traps in 2012, which were significantly higher in Bt maize than those of non-Bt maize. The main species of natural enemies were identical in Bt and non-Bt maize plots for each method and the three methods combined. For whole plant inspections, Bt maize had no time-dependent effect on the entire arthropod natural enemy community, and also no effect on community dissimilarities between Bt and non-Bt maize plots. These results suggested that despite the presence of a relatively minor difference in natural enemy communities between Bt and non-Bt maize, transgenic cry1Ie maize had little, if any, effect on natural enemy community biodiversity.

Deposit of microbial strains in public service collections as part of the publication process to underpin good practice in science

Abstract: Despite recommendations to release microbial resources to the community post-publication, the reality is far from satisfying. A workshop discussed the need for a coordinated and effective deposition policy for ‘key’ microbial strains and proposes a set of criteria to facilitate their deposition into public service collections. The majority of authors either contacted directly or during submission of manuscripts to several international, mainly European bacteriology journals agreed to this set of ‘key strain’ criteria and to the voluntarily deposition of resources into public resource centres.