Reduced-risk fungicides help manage brown rot and other fungal diseases of stone fruit

New reduced-risk fungicides are highly effective in managing both pre- and postharvest diseases of stone fruit crops in California, and they have replaced most previously registered materials. These fungicides have a low impact on the environment, high specificity to target organisms, and low potential for groundwater contamination and human health risks. In stone fruit, they can be successfully used to manage brown rot blossom blight in a new delayed-bloom fungicide application program for low-precipitation years. In our studies, we found that fungicide treatments applied 1 to 14 days before harvest were also effective against preharvest brown rot and protected fruit from fungal decays initiated during harvest. Practices such as mixtures and rotations can be implemented to prevent resistance from developing and to ensure the lasting efficacy of these reduced-risk fungicides

Reduced-risk fungicides help manage brown rot and other fungal diseases of stone fruit

New reduced-risk fungicides are highly effective in managing both pre- and postharvest diseases of stone fruit crops in California, and they have replaced most previously registered materials. These fungicides have a low impact on the environment, high specificity to target organisms, and low potential for groundwater contamination and human health risks. In stone fruit, they can be successfully used to manage brown rot blossom blight in a new delayed-bloom fungicide application program for lowprecipitation years. In our studies, we found that fungicide treatments applied 1 to 14 days before harvest were also effective against preharvest brown rot and protected fruit from fungal decays initiated during harvest. Practices such as mixtures and rotations can be implemented to prevent resistance from developing and to ensure the lasting efficacy of these reduced-risk fungicides

The Ambivalent Role of Religion for Sustainable Development: A Review of the Empirical Evidence

Until recently, academia has largely neglected the impact of religion on sustainable development. However, empirical studies have shown that religion remains important in many societies and that its importance has been increasing since the beginning of the new millennium. This paper reviews the empirical quantitative literature on the effect of religion on development from the last decade. We start by disaggregating the concepts of religion and sustainable development into four religious and three developmental dimensions and proposing a framework to identify causal mechanisms. Numerous mechanisms are possible, and this complexity explains why only a few uncontested findings exist. Religion is ambivalent vis-à-vis development: although religious dimensions exert a positive influence on physical and mental health as well as on general well-being, scholars have found a negative relationship between religious dimensions and both income and gender equality. Studies agree that the dominance of one religious group together with parallel ethnic and religious cleavages increases the risk of conflict, while studies on the pro-peace effects of religious factors are largely missing. Methodological challenges relate to the availability of fine-grained data, especially for non-Western countries, and the use of concepts and definitions. Most importantly, the study of religion and development requires methods that allow for causal inference