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NRI Emeritus Professor Chris Haines awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Entomological Society 2 August 2010
The Royal Entomological Society (RES) has awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Society to Chris Haines, Emeritus Professor of Post-Harvest Technology at NRI. The award is for Chris's long-term contribution to applied entomology during his career at NRI and for his services to the RES, especially in relation to his ongoing inputs to the RES's National Insect Week from 2004.
Chris's R&D work at NRI (and its precursor institutions) from 1971 was focused on the ecology and management of stored-product insects and mites, including: the role of a predatory mite in biocontrol of the tropical warehouse moth; the mode of action of the sex pheromones of the tropical warehouse moth and their potential use for monitoring and control; the taxonomy and practical identification of storage pest insects and mites, including the description of three new species of mites; studies of the diversity and distribution of storage pests and their communities (including predators and parasites) in food stores in Indonesia; the ecology and management of liposcelid psocopterans in Indonesian rice stores; and the use of bait-bag trapping to provide population estimates for pest-control decision-making in milled-rice warehouses.
During his presidency of the RES in 2002-2004, he strongly supported a proposal for the Society to initiate a National Insect Week (NIW), in order to raise the profile of the RES and to enhance its outreach activities by bringing awareness and understanding of the importance and fascination of insects to the attention of the wider public, with the aim of counteracting the predominantly ‘negative’ media stories about insects and the general public ignorance of the biodiversity and ecological role of insects. After the success of NIW2004, the RES decided to make it a biennial event, and Chris has been the RES's NIW Coordinator for NIW2006, NIW2008 and NIW2010. A key element in the success of the ongoing NIW campaign has been the involvement of official partners — increasing from 3 in 2004 to 38 in 2010 (including major players such as Butterfly Conservation, Buglife, British BeeKeepers Association, and the National Trust, as well as specialist groups such as the British Dragonfly Society, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, and Dipterists Forum). NIW2010 was the RES's contribution to the UK's celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity.
Chris received his Certificate of Honorary Fellowship on 27 July 2010 at Swansea University during the RES's Annual National Science Meeting Ento'10. The RES's next annual meeting, Ento'11, including an international symposium on ‘Insect Chemical Ecology: Reception, Detection and Deception’, will be organised by a team led by NRI's Professor of Chemical Ecology, David Hall, and held at the University of Greenwich's Medway Campus on 7-9 September 2011.
Release of Tomulabula in Uganda, the first ever sweet potato variety bred by participatory plant breeding 28 July 2010
Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is an approach, developed over the last few decades, in which farmers and researchers work together closely, usually in the farmers′ environment and each leading in their area of expertise. It is particularly appropriate for developing new crop varieties for marginal agro-ecologies and for poorer farmers. Sweet potato is a crop grown mainly by poorer women farmers in Africa, primarily in their gardens as a food crop but also for minor trading.
NRI, the Ugandan Sweet Potato Program and Ugandan farmer groups, mainly Tusitukire wamu Kabulanaka Farmers′ Association and Balikyewunya Farmers Group, have been working together since 2003 to breed new sweet potato varieties, the researchers providing farmers with access to thousands of seeds of their elite crosses and the farmers contributing their land, time and expertise. The UK DFID provided financial support throughout including now through its SARID programme. The work started paying off a few years ago when farmers identified a robust, high yielding clone with attractive, highly marketable roots. These sell at a big premium in the local markets and this has also led to extensive sales of planting material, a completely new market for them. As a result, group members are already seeing big improvements in their standard of living, reporting more money for school fees, better food [improved health], better clothes and some have even bought building plots in Kampala. They call this new variety Tomulabula, meaning ‘Don't make anyone aware [that it is so good]’. This year, it obtained the official accolade — it was approved for release in Uganda as NASPOT 11, the first ever release of a PPB-bred sweet potato variety.
Bill Gates in Landmark Address to new MPs 27 July 2010
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development was established in October 2008 in response to the food price spike of 2007/8. Formed by a small group of NGOs and interested Policy makers, NRI was one of the driving forces behind its establishment.
Designed as a neutral space for discussion it was hoped that the APPG would bridge the gap between policy makers in Westminster and the vast array of expertise on agriculture and food security which existed, and continues to do so in NGOs, Universities and Scientific Institutes across the UK.
Since its inception NRI has remained a key player in the APPG helping to form its Parliamentary agenda in close cooperation with MPs and Peers.
On 20 July 2010, in what has been hailed as a landmark meeting, Bill Gates met with the Parliamentary members of the APPG Agriculture and Food for Development to discuss the critical issue of global food security. For further information, please read the press release.
