Possibly The Best Biological Pest Management Resource You Don’t Know About
July 13, 2023 One of the best resources for biological pest management is, as of yet, virtually unknown in the U.S. A website managed by inter-governmental non-profit organization CAB International (better known as CABI) packs a trove of biocontrol education, research, and treatment recommendations, all for free at BioProtectionPortal.com.The site launched in the U.S. in February 2023.
To learn more about CABI and about BioProtectionPortal.com, I spoke with Ulrich Kuhlmann, Executive Director, Global Operations.
How Does CABI work?
Kuhlmann: CABI has two different arms. One is international development. We do a lot of consultancy work at the government level, and also with the private sector, to advise on sustainable agricultural solutions.
And our other arm is CABI publishing, which is a major publisher of agriculture information globally, including books, ebooks, compendia, e-learning tools, and also digital decision-support tools.
How did the CABI BioProtection Portal come about? And what was everyone’s hope for the site?
Kuhlmann: When we looked at our global program, Plantwise, in which we were supporting Extension services in over 30 countries with diagnosis and management support for pests, we felt that it was a pity that, even in countries where bioprotection products were available and registered, they were not being used. There was an amazing lack of awareness of these kinds of tools.
The idea was born to at least increase awareness of these products. We decided we needed to develop a digital decision-support tool and make it available for free to all in the world. And so that was the starting point of this journey.
Why do you think American growers and industry generally aren’t aware of CABI?
Kuhlmann: CABI is known to a number of people in USDA-ARS and also USDA-APHIS through the research work we are doing in the field of biological control solutions. Our publishing products, of course, are also known to a number of U.S. researchers.
But reaching out to the advisory services or to the Extension services in the U.S., as well as farmers, is, of course, totally different. And here we need to learn a lot.
We are currently seeking a partnership with Extension Service providers because we feel it is important that the Extension people are aware of our tool.
What’s on the portal/site?
Kuhlmann: By simply entering a country, crop, and/or pest, the Portal will give you information on which products are registered for this scenario. For the U.S., you can also filter by state to specifically search for products registered in your area. It’s very easy to maneuver and to handle.
The portal also houses a resources area, where a lot of bioprotection information is already available. Users can browse through this to learn more about the technology. It’s this combination of being, firstly, a decision-support tool, for identifying which biological products are available and suitable for use in a given crop-pest situation, as well as, secondly, a provider of important basic and applied knowledge on what bioprotection is and how to apply it, that makes the Portal so unique and valuable for growers and advisors.
To see the rest of the Q&A and watch walk-through videos of the site, read the full article as part of our special Global Insight Series report on Biological Crop Protection.
In addition, check out the previous reports in Meister’s Global Insight Series covering a range of topics from Soil Health to Irrigation Innovations to Agricultural Technology.
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