This article published today in the WSJ is extremely important to the global agricultural industry:
Craymer, Lucy, 2010. New zealand kiwi industry threatened by disease. The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 8.
From the article:
"New Zealand's biosecurity agency warned Monday that it's unsure whether the suspected outbreak of pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae that could wipe out orchards of the hairy fruit has already spread across the country. The disease, previously unseen in New Zealand, has caused substantial damage to kiwifruit vines in Italy since it was first discovered there in 1992."
The Kiwi is a billion dollar industry in New Zealand.
It is my view that this type of event will happen with greater frequency in global agriculture. The work of the MIT Field Intelligence Lab in sensing, sampling, and spatial analysis could go a long way in detecting and designing ways to target the means to destroy such disease outbreaks.
Further, the formation of the MIT Global Agricultural Initiative will be an important step in bringing advanced technology to agriculture.
The New Zealand case mirrors the situation in the Florida and Brazil citrus industry where two bacterial diseases have threatened to wipe out production.
No comments:
Post a Comment