Renata Retkute
drrenataretkute.bsky.social
Renata Retkute
@drrenataretkute.bsky.social
Visiting FAO to discuss modelling of locusts & transboundary plant pests and diseases. Excited to exchange ideas on strengthening global food security. 🌍🦗🌱
September 24, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
New climate resilience & sustainability project co-led by @drrenataretkute.bsky.social with @bioversityciat.bsky.social aims to protect banana production in Africa from crop disease.

Read more: tinyurl.com/2dutb4h2

#PlantSci 🧪
@cam.ac.uk
@cambridgebiosci.bsky.social
@camplantepidem.bsky.social
July 28, 2025 at 10:43 AM
New preprint: Controlling Banana Bunchy Top Disease in Benin: crop protection strategies with socioeconomic perspectives doi.org/10.1101/2025...
July 26, 2025 at 2:15 AM
New preprint: "A novel two-stage parameter estimation framework integrating Approximate Bayesian Computation and Machine Learning: The ABC-RF-rejection algorithm". With application to cassava brown streak disease #CBSD spread. #ParameterEstimation
arxiv.org/abs/2507.02072
July 4, 2025 at 6:55 AM
June 9, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
We celebrate a team member's success!
Renata @drrenataretkute.bsky.social has received a BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award to work with the Australian Plague Locust Commission on improved forecasting & management in Australia.

@camplantsci.bsky.social @globalfoodcamb.bsky.social
May 13, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
Congratulations to @drrenataretkute.bsky.social from Cambridge Plant Sciences' Epidemiology & Modelling group!

She has received a BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award to work with the Australian Plague Locust Commission on improved forecasting & management in Australia.

#PlantSciences 🧪
Excited to share that i received a BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award! 🎉 Over the next 6 months, I’ll be working with the Australian Plague Locust Commission to adapt desert locust models for improved forecasting & management in Australia. Big thanks to @BBSRC 🌾🦗 #PestManagement #ClimateAdaptation
May 12, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Excited to share that i received a BBSRC Flexible Talent Mobility Award! 🎉 Over the next 6 months, I’ll be working with the Australian Plague Locust Commission to adapt desert locust models for improved forecasting & management in Australia. Big thanks to @BBSRC 🌾🦗 #PestManagement #ClimateAdaptation
May 10, 2025 at 11:06 AM
New paper: Developing a spatio-temporal model for Banana Bunchy Top Disease: leveraging remote sensing and survey data www.frontiersin.org/journals/pla...
Frontiers | Developing a spatio-temporal model for Banana Bunchy Top Disease: leveraging remote sensing and survey data
Epidemics of Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD) in Sub-Saharan Africa are threatening global food security and endangering the livelihoods of smallholder farme...
www.frontiersin.org
April 12, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
New preprint on the Detection of Banana Diseases Based on Landsat-8 Data and Machine Learning from the Epidemiology and Modelling group at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.🍌 👇

doi.org/10.20944/pre...
April 7, 2025 at 1:11 PM
New preprint: Detection of Banana Diseases Based on Landsat-8 Data and Machine Learning
www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...
www.preprints.org
April 7, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
How does a solitary insect cause riots and mass starvation? It just needs a trigger.

Scientists from @camplantsci.bsky.social & @fao.org have developed new tool to help national agencies manage huge desert locust swarms before they devastate food crops in Africa & Asia 👇

tinyurl.com/327pj2cs
December 23, 2024 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
Predicting desert locust swarms: A new modelling framework integrates lifecycle, breeding, and movement patterns with weather data to forecast swarm behavior.
A framework for modelling desert locust population dynamics and large-scale dispersal
Author summary There is a critical need for tools that can help manage and predict the spread of transboundary pests, especially the desert locust, one of the most destructive pests for smallholder fa...
journals.plos.org
December 19, 2024 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
By using concepts from epidemiological modelling, we (@camplantsci.bsky.social, @metoffice.bsky.social and @fao.org) have developed an integrated modelling framework for doing just this!

Paper (open access): journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Press release: phys.org/news/2024-12...
A framework for modelling desert locust population dynamics and large-scale dispersal
Author summary There is a critical need for tools that can help manage and predict the spread of transboundary pests, especially the desert locust, one of the most destructive pests for smallholder fa...
journals.plos.org
December 19, 2024 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Renata Retkute
How do you combine simple atmospheric dispersion modelling trajectories like this with environmental data and population biology knowledge to make short- and long-term predictions of desert locust swarm migration?
December 19, 2024 at 7:39 PM