June 1999, Volume 20 No. 2

• Editorial
• General News
• Training News
• Internet Round-Up
• Announcements
• Conference Reports
• Biorational
• New Books

Conference Reports

Nicaragua Hosts Joint Event

Concurrent society and professional meetings are becoming more popular because they unite a larger group of people with overlapping interests. Such was done in Montelimar, Nicaragua on 26-30 October 1998, to bring together the VII International Integrated Pest Management Congress, the VII Caribbean Latinamerican Whitefly and Geminivirus Workshop and the XXXVIII Annual Meeting of the Caribbean Division of the American Phytopathology Society (APS). The joint event was made possible through the combined efforts of various people and institutions. The interinstitutional organization was fundamental to the development of the three meetings. The relationships between different groups and disciplines permitted a greater coverage of technical areas. Contacts with international and Nicaraguan specialists for organizing the different scientific activities were acomplished through a collaborative network among international and Nicaraguan institutions.

Four magistrate conferences were presented: (1) `Gender and agriculture: ideological obstacles to a gender focus' by Lic. Irma Ortega and Lic. Victor Flores; (2) `The current context of IPM' by Dr Keith L. Andrews; (3) `The evolution of viral diseases in traditional and export crops in Latin America' by Dr Francisco Morales; and (4) `Participative implementation and IPM: lessons and future directions' by Dr Ann Braun. For the IPM Congress there were five special conferences, one forum (`Politics, strategy and incentives for international organisms to implement IPM'), one symposium (`World initiatives in IPM') and two panel discussions (`Biological control in vegetables, and `Gender in agriculture'), plus 144 short presentations and 45 posters. For the Whitefly Workshop, three special conferences were presented, plus three panel discussions (`Regional efforts on whitefly control', `Impact of whitefly on agriculture in the region' and `Review of whitefly research in the past decade') and 28 posters. During the APS meeting, four special conferences were given, along with one symposium (`Diseases caused by phytoplasmas and spiroplasmas'), 21 short presentations and six posters. All field trips, except a visit to the biological control facilities at the Universidad Nacional Agraria in Managua, were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions caused by Hurricane Mitch.

A copy of the event proceedings may be obtained from Ing. Gregorio Varela, Escuela de Sanidad Vegetal, Universidad Nacional Agraria, Managua, Nicaragua
E-mail:  

The VIII International IPM Congress will be held in Panamá in 2000. The XXXIX APS-CD meeting will be held in Puerto Rico in June 1999 and the XL meeting will be in Guatemala in 2000.

By: Ronald D. Cave and Gregorio Varela

Barn Owls Set the Tone

The Symposium on Biological Control in the Tropics was held at Serdang, Malaysia on 18-19 March 1999, organized by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and CAB International's South-East Asia Regional Centre (CABI-SEARC), and heralded the establishment of Malaysia's new National Council for Biological Control, an innovative partnership of universities, government research institutes and industry to promote and lead biological control initiatives in the country. Participants came from many South-East Asian countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada. The emphasis was on new developments in biological control, and this permitted some very exciting sessions on such distinctly Asian biological control successes as the manipulation of ants in fruit and nut crops, the use of barn owls and other vertebrates for rat control, and the biological control of golden apple snail with fish and botanicals.

Nest boxes full of live barn owls were one of the Symposium's more enduring and unusual images of biological control, and underlined the unique blend of thinking at this meeting between successful use of local, `traditional' natural enemies like owls, ants, fish and ducks and the latest advances in microbial and biotechnological methods for biological control. Biological control of plant diseases, both of field and plantation crops, emerged in particular as a very active and promising area of research in Malaysia and the region. A number of keynote papers explored some provocative subjects like biotechnology in biological control, the failure of the agrochemical industry to deliver new biological control products, and the role of farmers in biological control research.

The proceedings of the meetings have been published* and can be obtained from:
The Regional Representative,
South-East Asia Regional Centre,
CAB International, P. O. Box 210,
43409 UPM, Serdang, Malaysia.
Price: RM 75.00 (Malaysian Ringgit) including postage and handling charges.
Enquiries:
Email:
Fax: +(603)-9436400/9426490

*Loke, W.H.; Sastroutomo, S.S.; Caunter, I.G.; Jambari, A.; Lum, K.Y.; Vijaysegaran, S.; Yong, H.S. (eds) (1999) Proceedings of the Symposium on Biological Control in the Tropics, Serdang, Malaysia, 18-19 March 1999. SEARC-CAB International.