In January FABI researchers Professors Brett Hurley, Irene Barnes and Bernard Slippers joined researchers from the Institute for Commercial Forestry Research (ICFR), Dr Ilaria Germishuizen and Greg Fuller, on a field trip in the southern regions of Ethiopia. This is part of a five-year ‘Management of pests and diseases of forest crops in Ethiopia’, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and involving the University of Sunshine Coast (Brisbane, Australia), the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Ethiopian Forest Development, ICFR and FABI.

The broader project aims to ‘develop and implement sustainable management for key insect pests and diseases of Acacias, eucalypts and Moringa in Ethiopia to strengthen and sustain livelihoods and forest enterprises’, but the specific objectives of this field trip were to:

1) Assess the eucalypt and wattle species trials planted last year by the ICFR, EFD and CIFOR, for growth and survival, as well as pest and disease incidence,

2) Continue with surveys of pests and pathogens on mature eucalypt stands, and

3) Assess the establishment of biological control agents of eucalypt pests in the region.

All nine trials were visited across three regions, and multiple pest and pathogen samples collected for identification or biocontrol assessment.

A special thanks to the CIFOR and EFD teams for managing the complicated logistics associated with this trip!