Cannibalism in Spodoptera feeding on tomato – but don’t rely on spraying with jasmonic acid as an insect control just yet

Interesting article on cannibalism in Spodoptera feeding on tomato. The authors tested the hypothesis that induced defences benefit tomato plants by encouraging insects to eat other members of their species. They reported that defences which promote cannibalism benefit tomatoes in two ways: cannibalism directly reduces herbivore abundance and cannibals eat significantly less plant material. This […]
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Potential for resistance to leaf miner in tomato

While it may be some years off before a leaf miner resistant tomato variety is available, the recently published results of screening for resistance shows real promise. More details can be found by accessing the article (free access) from Peter Hanson’s group (AVRDC) in Plant Breeding (Screening recently identified whitefly/spider mite-resistant wild tomato accessions for […]
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😎Conducting a Seed Business (Myanmar): An introduction and overview of best practices on segmentation and variety evaluation

The Syngenta Foundation is running a course on Conducting a Seed Business. This course is an introduction to some of the basic mechanisms and tools used by the seed industry in the introduction and management of product lines. While the number and type of mechanisms and tools used vary, this course will introduce four of […]
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Updates to website

There have been a few updates to the website where I’ve added some details on projects undertaken by AgConAsia in addition to some details on opportunities in the agriculture sector. More and more will be posted over time as I put the details onto the website. For more details on any of the projects/opportunities just […]
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Monsanto Officially Rejects Bayer Bid

Monsanto has officially rejected the Bayer bid, at least for the time being. In a carefully worded statement the Monsanto board rejected the bid but left the door open for what would seem a better offer. ” … Board of Directors unanimously views the Bayer AG proposal as incomplete and financially inadequate, but is open […]
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Bayer posts $62 billion bid to buy Monsanto

Is it a surprising move or not? Time will tell but the latest bid by Bayer for Monsanto is certainly interesting, not to mention the somewhat obscure reasons from Bayer behind the move – consolidation and “combine Monsanto’s No. 1 position in seeds and crop genetics with Bayer’s prowess in pesticides to create a truly […]
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The on-going Syngenta saga – Mike Mack resigns

You would have seen last week the reports of Mike Mack resigning. While it seems that the reasons behind it are his arrogance for rejecting/not pursuing the sale of Syngenta to Monsanto, what’s more interesting is what other details of Syngenta’s activities over the last year were confirmed. Firstly, Syngenta, through comments from its interim […]
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Not allowing comments on my blog

I’ve had a few emails regarding the site’s lack of opportunities to add comments. Well originally I did but I’ve since turned this function off for a few reasons. Firstly, if you did want to add a comment you can just email me. Secondly, it’s my blog for my consultancy company and I want to […]
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