Hi Everyone

The new PestNet website is up and running: www.pestnet.org.

I have written a couple of stories, and put them under Archives. Take a look and if you are interested in taro, taro leaf blight or taro lethal viruses diseases, see them under “Tales from the Pacific”. 

I decided to write a story about Taro Leaf Blight for several reasons:

• Why did it take 5 years to get donor funding to deal with the disease when it hit Samoa in June 1993 and wiped out the crop in 6 months?
• How much did luck have to do with getting a program started?
• Why did results fall far short of my expectations?
• And, importantly, I wanted to ask:

• what were the lessons learned, if any?
• how did they help in dealing with similar pest incursions?
• how does the disaster of taro leaf blight compare with a recent invasion of the coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes

I have written it in a non-scientific way so that it could be read by a wide audience, as I think there's a lot to learn from the taro leaf saga and there is still much to doI

If you are interested in taro, its most deadly pathogen, but also broader issues of food and nutritional security of an important but unresearched mainly subsistence crop, then take a look at the story:

Go to PestNet > Archives (from the main menu) >Tales of the Pacific > Taro leaf blight and click on the image
Or click on: Taro leaf blight: my 50-year role in its downfall on the front page, and click on the image
Or go straight to the story at: https://www.pestnet.org/the-taro-leaf-blight-story/  and click on  the image

By the way, the same disease got into West Africa for the first time in 2010 and has done a lot of damage there.

If you have any tales on plant protection, please share.