My friend and former colleague Jim Waller, who has died of pulmonary fibrosis aged 86, was a plant pathologist with particular interest in and a profound experience of the diseases affecting tropical crops.
He used this knowledge, as well as his many contacts in agricultural research institutes and UN agencies, to establish a plant pathology liaison unit in 1971 at the Commonwealth Mycological Institute (CMI) in Kew, west London. It was then part of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, funded by the Foreign Office’s overseas development administration, to assist developing countries with the identification and management of crop diseases.
