CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

We're moving!

We’re moving!

After almost 12 years, the CABI blog is migrating to a new platform and a new URL: https://blog.cabi.org/ Our new blog will be built on WordPress, which means it’ll look better and load faster on mobile devices and feature better social media integration. The commenting system is also more robust, and the CABI blog is now better integrated with CABI’s other blogs (on Plantwise and Invasives).

 

If you currently subscribe to the blog via RSS or email you will no longer receive updates. To keep receiving alerts whenever we post a new article, please visit https://blog.cabi.org/ and re-subscribe. Don’t worry about losing your favourite article from the last 12 years – all of our archives have been migrated as well.

 

We look forward to sharing stories about our online resources, publishing products and our work in international development in our new home!

It must be Halal, right?

The world Halal food market is valued at $700 billion. Pakistan only contributes $28 million, less than 0.5%, to this market despite having the second largest Islamic population in the world.

In Pakistan, although roughly 97% of the population follows Islam, there is not a single Halal certified food chain in the country.

A recent journal article published by CABI scientists, Dr Mazhar and Dr Bajwa, along with Dr Collins from the University of Queensland discusses some remarkable findings on the state of the Halal food chain in Pakistan.

A Halal food chain is one where all the input supplies, materials, production, processing, logistics, handling and trade in a food product, from the point of origin until the food reaches consumers, follow the permissible guidelines of Islamic law.

Only around 20% of food available in Pakistan’s major supermarkets has been Halal certified.

The reasons behind this include; very low consumer awareness of Halal certification, an increasingly complicated global food system and a lack of government legislation.

Studies have found that consumers rarely demand Halal certification for the food they buy. While a few certifying agencies are accredited by the government, most are not, instead following international guidelines which don’t necessarily cater to the local customs of Halal food preparation.

It’s not just the meat industry that needs to comply with Halal standards. Particularly in processed foods involving dairy, confectionery, and bakery products the use of enzymes, gelatine and emulsifiers is common. Suppliers and processors need to ensure that such additives are derived from Halal sources.

^{Photo credit Lars Curfs}

There is good economic reason for Pakistan to improve its certification standards. The wealthy and demanding Halal markets of Middle East and Gulf countries nearby provide a potentially lucrative new export opportunity.

Learning from other countries could help Pakistan capitalise on the regions insatiable demand for Halal.

Malaysia has the most developed Halal food industry in the Islamic world. Any food product eaten by consumers can only be certified Halal if all the operations in that supply chain follow strict guidelines. Additionally, consumer awareness programs have been launched and actively conducted to increase the demand of Halal certified food products.

The authors suggest that such changes for Pakistan are difficult or impossible to accomplish without external assistance. Typically businesses and governments rely on specialist providers in this arena. One example currently operating in Pakistan is The Food Safety Network; an online sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) distance learning course of which CABI is an implementing partner. Aspects of the course focusing on plant pest surveillance, plant pest identification systems, and plant pest inspections help bolster agricultural exports from Pakistan.

Other interventions could include shopper awareness programs, as in Malaysia, to increase understanding of Halal certified food products as well as the standardisation of slaughtering methods to meet international Halal specifications.

There is a clear need and opportunity for Pakistan to develop its domestic Halal food chains. By doing so, it may satisfy its own consumer demands and explore markets in the region to capture a greater share of the world market for Halal food.

 

Article based on Halal Food Chains - Concepts and Opportunities in Pakistan

A conversation on 'Communicating Evidence for Sustainable Development'

Last month two CABI employees, Solveig Danielsen and Paul Day, attended a conference at Wageningen University on Communicating Evidence for Sustainable Development. Sol works in the Monitoring and Evaluation team (M&E) and Paul is a communicator. The conference led to a lively conversation which we captured here.

Phytosanitary Risk Management Programme - transforming livelihoods in Pakistan

Meet Rozina Babar, she is one of thousands of smallholder farmers in Pakistan whose livelihoods are threatened by agricultural pests and diseases that can devastate crops and ultimately have a severe impact on food security and profitability.

However, thanks to the CABI-led Phytosanitary Risk Management Programme – funded by USAID-USDA and working with partners including the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council – Rozina has seen increases in her income from Rs. 30,000 ($260) to Rs. 70,000 ($605).

The fruit and vegetable farmer from Rahimabad, a small village in the district Gilgit in the province of Gilgit Baltistan, has been trained by CABI to implement biological control methods to tackle the fruit fly pest which has been threatening her crops.

Cotton harvest picture special

 

The power of the image paints a picture that speaks a thousand words and that is certainly the case with these fantastic images taken by photographer Asim Hafeez.

Asim was commissioned by CABI to document the process of harvesting cotton in Pakistan – the country’s largest industrial sector – where more than 500,000 farmers rely on the crop for their livelihoods.

CABI is helping the country’s cotton industry reduce losses of around $350m a year by training thousands of farmers and workers about better production, transport and storage practices as part of the Better Cotton Initiative.

These photographs tell the story of how cotton farmers at five districts (Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Umer Kot, Tando Allah Yar and Matiari, of Sindh, Pakistan are learning to grow more and lose less of what they sow, thereby maintaining their livelihoods through increased profitability.

Termite workshop photo special - exploring tree-damaging termites in the tropics

CABI scientists have held a successful three-day workshop exploring how to diagnose and manage termites associated with structures and trees in the tropics.

The workshop, held at CABI’s South East Asia (SEA) office building at MARDI in Serdang, Malaysia, highlighted termites as ecologically important insects with significant roles to play as decomposers but also as pests that can cause major damage to trees and buildings.

This photo blog charts the three-day event officially opened by Dr Sivapragasam Annamalai, Regional Director of CABI SEA, and which included a welcome by CABI CEO Dr Trevor Nicholls.

Earth Day 2018 - The campaign to eliminate plastic pollution

[Image credit: Pixabay - hhach]

This blog post was written by our new Content Editor - Ellen Baker, ahead of Earth Day on Sunday 22nd April.

This year the annual environmental issues awareness event ‘Earth day’ is focussing on the topic of plastic pollution; the problems generated by our high usage of single use plastics have been a campaign point for numerous environmental groups for many years but the topic of plastic pollution has recently been brought to the forefront of public discussion by the hugely popular BBC documentary Blue Planet II. Prompted by the poignant last episode of the series which featured this topic heavily, the nationwide programme narrated by Sir David Attenborough has appeared to catalyse a change in public opinion on plastic waste, what some have subsequently dubbed this the ‘Blue planet effect’.

Dr Rob Reeder goes 'bananas' about pests and diseases on the Urban Farm Podcast

Plant pathologist Dr Rob Reeder has this week spoken to Greg Peterson of the US-based Urban Farm Podcast about how the global supply of bananas (particularly the Cavendish variety) could be put at risk from a three-pronged attack of pests and diseases.

In the podcast, Dr Reeder reveals the reasons why the fungus known as Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4), together with the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) and the Banana Skipper butterfly (Erionota spp), could destroy banana plantations across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

As part of the solution to the problem, which could cost the global banana industry $35 billion as highlighted by CABI in a story publicised in December, Dr Reeder underlines the work of the Plantwise programme including how it helps farmers in developing countries diagnose and manage pests and diseases at its plant clinics.

Building capacity for greater food security in Pakistan

Around 30-40% of crops around the world are lost to insect pests thereby affecting the ability of the 500 million small-scale farmers around the world to contribute towards the goal of achieiving zero hunger and ending poverty. Reducing losses by just 1% could feed millions more people but many countries in the Developing World need support to implement biological control programmes to reduce food losses.

As part of CABI’s mission to help farmers grow more and lose less, we have been funded by USAID – via the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – to help Pakistan improve its sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) systems and therefore open up its fruit and vegetables to more high-end global markets that were previously untapped. Currently these products only contribute 13% of the country’s export but improvements to its SPS capabilities could see this number rise significantly.

"Invasive Alien Plants" by Carol Ellison

It was back in the early 1990s, on my first field trip to Assam in North-east India, with invasion ecologist Dr. Sean T. Murphy, when I first encountered mikania growing as an invasive weed. Until then, I had only seen this vine in its Central and South American native range, where locating a population of the plant could sometimes take all day. 

Mikania micrantha smothering native vegetation in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Photo courtesy S.T. Murphy.