At the start of our trip, I’m traveling with my husband, entomologist Doug Landis. Enroute to Kyrgyzstan, we are stopping to visit an important partner in the USAID IPM CRSP project, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Headquartered in Aleppo, Syria, ICARDA personnel conduct research and education throughout Central Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa. ICARDA’s regional office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan provides administrative support for the IPM CRSP post-doc’s.
Our key ICARDA collaborator is Dr Mustafa El Bohssini, a Moroccan Entomologist who was trained at Kansas State University. We will be visiting Mustafa in Aleppo to see his research and collaborate on the overall project. One of Mustafa’s students is conducting work in Syria to see if medicinal plants grown in the region can also attract and support natural enemies in cropping systems. If so, famers may benefit from both pest control and have a valuable crop to sell as well.
Mustafa’s main research focuses on management of Sunn pest of wheat. This insect is a pest throughout Central Asia where it feeds on the developing grains of wheat. While the physical damage appears slight, Sunn pest feeding alters proteins in the grain and makes it unsuitable for bread-making, the principal use of wheat in the region.
We will land in Aleppo at 2:30 AM in a few hours.
