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Fourteenth Annual Symposium Of The Soilborne Plant Diseases Interest Group Of South Africa

The Soilborne Plant Diseases Unit of the Agricultural Research Council’s Plant Protection Research Institute hosted the 14 th interdisciplinary symposium on soilborne plant diseases on 15 and 16 September 2004 at the Vredenburg Research Centre of the ARC-PPRI in Stellenbosch.   The topic for this year’s symposium was Crop Rotation and Soilborne Plant Diseases and was attended by 60 representatives of Research Councils, National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture, private companies and universities.   Participants represented a wide range of disciplines such as agronomy, botany, entomology, horticulture, microbiology, nematology, plant pathology, and soil science.

A remarkable thing happened on Monday 22 April 2002 when the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), held a seminar about the ISI Web of Knowledge (www.isinet.com/emea/sa/trial) in Cape Town. They used the ISI Essential Science Indicators to identify the most highly cited researchers world-wide in 22 categories based on total citations from papers indexed from 1991 to October 31, 2001. Only 5 South African scientists were included in the lists for All Categories. These included 4 PROMEC (or ex-PROMEC) researchers: Drs Gordon Shephard, Eric Sydenham and Pieter Thiel among the top 15 most highly cited researchers in the Category Agriculture, and Prof Wally Marasas among the top 120 most highly cited researchers in each of two categories, Agriculture and Plant & Animal Sciences. The four PROMEC researchers received awards at the function and a good time was had by all.

On behalf of the SASPP, we would like to congratulate Prof. Marasas with this wonderful achievement!

Bean Disease Workshop held in South Africa

The 3rd International Bean Rust and 2nd Common Bacterial Blight Workshops were held at Game Valley Lodge near Pietermaritzburg from 3 to 8 March 2002. The workshops were organized by Merion Liebenberg and Deidré Fourie of the ARC Grain Crops Institute in Potchefstroom and Antony Jarvie of PANNAR, Greytown. The international organizing committee consisted of Dr Jim Steadman and Dr Talo Pastor-Corrales.

The back-to back workshops were attended by more than 40 delegates from the USA, Spain, Puerto Rico, Colombia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Malawi, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Dr John Purchase of the Grain Crops Institute delivered the welcoming address whereas distinguished bean researchers such as Jim Kelly (Michigan State University), Phil Miklas (USDA, Washington State University), Jim Steadman (University of Nebraska), Talo Pastor-Corrales (USDA-ARS, Beltsville), George Mahuku (CIAT, Colombia), Bob Gilbertson (UC Davis) and Shree Singh (University of Idaho) chaired the sessions.

The workshops discussed rust and common blight problems in participating countries, the biology and variability of the respective pathogens, classical and molecular approaches to breeding for resistance, as well as integrated disease management. A successful field trip was conducted to Cedara and Greytown where bean germplasm of international importance were grown in disease nurseries.

The scenic Game Valley Lodge provided an excellent venue for the bean group and enjoyable game drives and social functions added to the success of the meeting.

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Mail and Guardian 27/10/2000, Eldene Eyssell and Elisabeth Lickindorf,

DNA -testing could prevent deadly 'black goo"

Stellenbosch team, has found a fast, accurate test for the fungus known as "black goo" which has been devastating the world's vineyards.