By: CropLife International

Kiran Timilsina, a researcher at the Agriculture and Forestry University in Chitwan, Nepal discusses GMOs and the need for “mind blowing ideas” for the future of crop protection and the future population.

By: CropLife International

How plant science can help Ugandans feed their families and increase climate – resilience.

Meet Dr. Michael Otim, a Crop Entomologist at the National Crops Institute. Dr. Otim works in Uganda, where droughts affected close to 2.4 million people between 2004 and 2013.^[1] He is part of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa project which is working to develop drought-resistant maize.

This research will be vital for families like Grace Maku’s. Like most Ugandans, Grace Maku and her family rely on the maize they grow on their farm to both feed themselves and be their primary source of income.

As Grace explains, climate change is putting her maize farming at risk:

“DROUGHT SIMPLY DRIES UP THE MAIZE. SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO GET WATER AND TRY TO IRRIGATE, BUT THAT’S NEVER EASY HERE.”

This is where drought-resistant crops could greatly improve her life. Some estimates suggest that drought-resistant maize could reduce up to 25% of crop loss. Innovations like this are essential to ensuring we meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal on Zero Hunger.

When maize is successfully harvested, it is often milled at places like Nakatundu Maize Millers in Kiwenda, Uganda. Over two million Ugandans count on maize as their main source of income, with agriculture accounting for almost 30% of the nation’s GDP.^[2]

Mitigating the impact of climate change and drought on crops like maize would mean increased demand for millers and increased economic activity – benefiting all Ugandans.

From Dr. Michael Otim’s lab, into Grace Maku’s field, all the way to Agnes Makilumda’s (pictured above) table, maize’s journey from the field to the plate is an important one

As global climate continues to change, and it becomes harder to harvest maize and other crops through drought, floods, and other natural disasters, biotech can help ensure our food’s journey is not interrupted.

By: CropLife International

Last month, CropLife International attended the 4^th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya. Policy makers, businesses and third-sector organizations from across the globe came together to discuss the environmental challenges our planet faces, and how sustainable innovation could be the key to solve these.

One area we’re passionate about is improving soil health. We joined the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Fertilizer Association and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) at a side event to talk about the importance of healthy soils to ensure food safety, food security and human health.

CropLife International’s Director of International Regulatory Affairs for Crop Protection, Christoph Neumann, spoke about how new innovations in plant science can help tackle pests and diseases, while also ensuring soil health.

He also spoke about the importance of no-till agriculture – the practice of planting a new crop directly into the stubble of the previous crop, without ploughing. Intrinsic to the use of no-till is the use of herbicides to control weeds.

No-till helps to maintain soil structure, improve the ability of soil to retain water and every year it prevents the release of CO2 equivalent to removing every car from London for 5 years.

Christoph explained how investment in research on natural pesticides, known as biologicals, is another major area of innovation to help farmers deal with the pest threats to our harvests and crops.

We also joined the UN Environment Programme which urges more action on chemical management. We support UNEP’s new report, Global Chemical Outlook II (GCO II), which calls for efforts to ensure chemical management is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. You can read more about how the industry actively supports GCO-II here.

Partnerships was another major them at UNEA. I sat on a panel event organised by UNEP where we discussed the value of public private partnerships to deliver sustainable development. I spoke about how we have worked with the German development organisation, GIZ, and the Vietnam government to help thousands of rice farmers towards a better future.

As Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary General and Active Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, articulated: “Standing still is falling behind”. We must all work together to come up with new solutions to fight today’s environmental challenges – through collaboration across businesses, governments, citizens, and NGOs.

By: CropLife International 

Jake Leguee is a third generation family farmer in Saskatchewan, Canada. He grows several crops on his land including canola, wheat, durum, peas, lentils, and soybeans. We visited Jake during the harvest season to learn how he practices sustainable farming.

Jake and his family farm 13,000 acres, which is around 35 miles from one side to the other. This means the farm has many different land types and weather patterns.

Like many other farmers, weather is one of the biggest challenges that Jake faces on his farm. But with the right tools there are lots of things he can do to tackle this: “if we can maximize the crops water-use efficiency, we can make the best use of the weather we get. And the best way to do that is with good varieties, good nutrition, and taking care of pests in the crop.”

Jake follows integrated pest management (IPM) principles to ensure that he manages pests on his farm sustainably. Learn more about Jake and IPM here.

By: CropLife International 

German beer is famous around the world. Most brewers in Germany still follow a 500-year old recipe that combines water, hops, malt and alt yeast.

Most German hop farms have been in families for many generations. Meet one of our food heroes- Georg Selmeier, a sixth-generation hop farmer. As his experience has taught him, hops are very vulnerable to pests and disease — “Every year we have a new challenge”.

And that’s where crop protection can help!

Florian Weihrauc is a plant scientist at the Hop Research Institute. He’s working to help farmers protect their hops from damage – he explains that knowing when to apply crop protection products is a crucial part of preventing disease.

“Take downy mildew. Because we know the disease, we developed a forecasting model that gives a control threshold that tells farmers when they need to spray fungicides, using as little as possible, but as much as needed to protect the crop.”

It’s research and tools from Florian and his colleagues that keep hops healthy and German beer flowing.

Cheers to our #FoodHeroes for working together to keep harvests healthy, so there’s more beer for everyone!

Read more about our hops and our German #FoodHeroes here