PlantwisePlus delivers plant health ‘training of trainers’ in South Sudan 

South Sudan’s agricultural sector is vital to its economy and employs most of the population. The FAO estimates that up to 95% of South Sudan relies on agriculture for income. Diverse crops like cassava, maize, groundnut and sorghum characterize farming here. However, agriculture in this East African nation faces challenges. Climate change and global warming,…
Read Further

PlantwisePlus restarts plant clinics following conflict in Tigray region of Ethiopia

In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, village-based plant clinics have traditionally flourished. Running from 2014 to 2020, with the support of CABI and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the local government and community embraced the clinics. The regional government even expanded on their services. However, a two-year conflict in Northern Ethiopia interrupted plant clinic operations.…
Read Further

How plant doctor training supports smallholder farmers in Nepal

In Nepal, the International Development Enterprise (iDE) has introduced an approach to address the challenges smallholder farmers face in accessing agricultural inputs and advice. Known as Community Business Facilitators (CBFs), these individuals are local citizens trained to provide agricultural services within their communities. Some CBFs also train as plant doctors (CBF-PDs) through CABI’s PlantwisePlus programme,…
Read Further

Plant doctor training improves Rwandan farmers’ access to plant health advice

Plant doctor training session participants in Rwanda
A six-day Plantwise plant doctor training session took place in Rwanda this March. Funded by CABI, the training aimed to build the capacity of Rwanda Inspectorate, Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (RICA) staff in the diagnosis of crop pest problems, and providing advice to farmers.
Read Further

Three types of training delivering plant health knowledge to Burundi’s farmers

How do you reach millions of farmers with tried-and-tested plant health advice? The answer is to train the plant health advisors. In Burundi, Plantwise has been doing just this. In March 2021, Plantwise started to train plant doctors in Burundi to deliver plant health advice to farmers. And five months later, in August, Plantwise was…
Read Further

Plant doctor training: a student’s perspective

Trainee plant doctors
Swagata Saikia, a PhD Scholar in Plant Pathology, recently participated in a Plant Doctor training course. Here Swagata talks about her experiences during the course. One fine day, I arrived at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Titabor, along with five of my friends for a training course entitled “Becoming a Plant Doctor”.  Other PhD students,…
Read Further

Plantwise Burundi: building extension skills and resources

Plant doctor training in Burundi
The role of extension staff in reaching smallholder farmers with relevant agricultural information is key to enabling them to grow more and lose less to crop pests and diseases. The advice given on agricultural practices helps to improve crop quality and yield and to sell agricultural produce for better prices.
Read Further

Plant doctors help in fight against crop threats in Jammu, India

Plant doctor orientation day, Jammu
The role Plantwise plant doctors play in helping smallholder farmers mitigate crop losses due to pests and diseases has been lauded by K.K. Sharma – the Director of Agricultural Production & Welfare Department in Jammu, India.
Read Further

AI Plant Doctor app launched to help diagnose pests and diseases on dragon fruit crops in Vietnam

A new state-of-the-art mobile application has been launched – available on computers or smartphones – to help smallholder farmers in Vietnam identify pests and diseases which can devastate their dragon fruit crops. Vietnam is the largest producer of dragon fruit in Asia and is the leading exporter of the ‘super fruit’ in the world. According…
Read Further

New plant doctors in India “monitor the field through a farmer’s eyes”

Launching of Plantwise training in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. With the support of the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, under an RKVY scheme, a 6-day training programme on Plantwise modules was conducted at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), Jabalpur, in technical collaboration with CABI.
Read Further