Highlights and Happenings

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Asia Program Manager Short Heinrichs and workshop leader S. Nakkeeran at the “Production and use of bio-control agent Trichoderma and plant growth promoting Rhizobacteria” workshop at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Trichoderma workshop in Cambodia 
From June 13-17, 2016, the IPM Innovation Lab hosted the workshop “Production and use of bio-control agent Trichoderma and plant growth promoting Rhizobacteria” at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This workshop, led by Dr. S. Nakkeeran from Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, was co-hosted by iDE and taught over 30 participants how to grow their own Trichoderma, a fungus that fights pests and promotes plant growth.

Muniappan discusses Tuta with news outlets
Tuta absoluta, the South American tomato leafminer, has been all over the news recently due to its decimation of tomatoes in Nigeria. Muni was interviewed by a number of outlets including BBC World Service, WVTF Radio IQ, Virginia Tech News, and Bloomberg about his expertise on the invasive moth. And just last week, the pest was confirmed in Nepal and Bangladesh.

East Africa planning meeting
From March 28 to April 6, 2016, members from two IPM Innovation Lab teams traveled to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania for the first planning meetings of the “Vegetable IPM for East Africa” and “Grains IPM for East Africa” projects. The meetings were attended by the Principal Investigators for both projects, John Cardina of Ohio State University for the vegetable IPM project, and Tadele Tefera of International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology for the grains IPM project. By holding these meetings during the same period of time, the Principal Investigators of both projects were able to meet and could share their unique knowledge to help one another’s projects.

Trip to Ethiopia for Parthenium project
Wondi Mersie, the PI for IPM IL’s Biological Control of Parthenium project, recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia to participate in a training workshop at Wollenchiti bioagent rearing site and confer with Ethiopian partners on the implementation of the project. You can read more about his trip and project above in our “PI Profile.”

Work in Nepal covered on Virginia Tech News
The IPM IL’s associate award in Nepal was covered in the Virginia Tech News in June. The article discussed the impact of the IPM work down there, both economic and environmental.

Muni in the Richmond Times-Dispatch
An op-ed by Muni about the importance of awareness when it comes to Tuta absoluta was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

IPM Innovation Lab to hold joint meeting
On July 7 and 8, 2016, IPM IL will hold a joint meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee and Project PIs in Blacksburg, VA. Each PI or acting PI will give a presentation about their project, the Technical Advisory Committee will hold their meeting, and we will hold a catered reception to introduce our IPM IL partners to members of the Virginia Tech community.

Highlights and Happenings
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