Knowledge to improve food security
October 10, 2014 Leave a comment
Since its launch early this year, the partnership between the Plantwise Initiative and the Ministry of Agriculture in Mozambique (MINAG) continues to grow. The National Directorate of Agrarian Services (DNSA) that falls under MINAG is the Plantwise implementing institution in Mozambique. There are currently 5 plant clinics established and running in Maputo and Manica provinces. Read more of this post
July 25, 2014 Leave a comment
©CABI
Last year, 2013, was a productive year for Plantwise. There were over 120,000 visits to the online knowledge bank, with over 250,000 page views. This is great news because there were over 15,000 views per month, with people exploring distribution maps, browsing the image-led diagnostic tool, and looking at factsheets on treatment of pests and diseases. Of the views, about a quarter were from PW countries, where use has doubled since the same time in 2012.
We’re excited to share that at the end of last year, there were more than 7,500 factsheets publicly available on the knowledge bank, with 550 Factsheets for Farmers, 100 Pest Management Decision Guides, 3,400 Technical Factsheets and links to 3,500 External factsheets. The Technical Factsheets included 2,500 pests that affect over 4,000 different agriculturally significant hosts.
Mobile is progressing well, with over 450 Factsheets for Farmers having been repurposed and available via tablet or smartphone. This means that plant doctors on the e-clinics pilot initiative have access to factsheet information in real-time as they fill out prescription forms, making diagnoses and recommendations more accurate. Using mobile technology also increases the number of people that Plantwise reaches, especially since the app works with intermittent internet, and can be viewed offline.
The Pest Alert service had 545 sign-ups from 200 countries, including 169 contacts from the National Plant Protection Organizations.
As of the end of December 2013, plant clinics were regularly collecting data in 14 countries, with over 18,000 records of visits by farmers. Local and national engagement continues to increase in 2014, with the current numbers in July being over 50 000 records collected from 23 countries.
It’s been a busy first half of 2014, and we’re already making good progress on figures for this year. Check out the knowledge bank site to see the content we’ve added recently!
Yours in losing less and feeding more,
The Plantwise knowledge bank
June 23, 2014 2 Comments
Story by Malvika Chaudhary, CABI in India
Photo: Saurav Paul
Vargur is a small village in the Tamil Nadu state of India where paddy is grown on a large scale. The plant clinics in this region are very popular with farmers. For plant doctor Sarangpani it was a usual day, anticipating the regular crowd of paddy farmers in his plant clinic. He enjoyed this interaction with them, especially after improving his pest diagnostic and advisory skills through training provided by Plantwise and research non-profit M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). His rich experience as a farmer in the past had now translated into service for his community through these regular plant clinics.
Though ‘samba,’ or long grain rice season was usually quiet, this time Balchander and many farmers like him had a different story. The farmers had been seeing white spots on the young leaves of their paddy plant, which began to turn to grey-green in couple of days, bringing them increasing worry. It was time for plant doctors like Sarangpani to take immediate action to try and help Balchander and his neighboring paddy farmers.
June 4, 2014 2 Comments
Representatives at Afghanistan’s National Forum
Since 2012, the Plantwise Afghanistan team, including Muhammad Faheem as Country Coordinator, Dr Babar Ehsan Bajwa as Regional Director for CABI Central and West Asia and Julien Lamontagne-Godwin as European Support Staff from the CABI UK centre, has been increasingly involved in the agricultural development of the country. As the programme has gone from strength to strength, it has not only grown its clinic network, but also engaged regularly with the various stakeholders involved in the country’s agricultural system.
The National Forum is one of the many stakeholder engagement tools at the programme’s disposal, and it was used to full effect in March 2014. Read more of this post
May 27, 2014 1 Comment
Did you guess Peru in our ‘Guess the clinic‘ challenge? Well you were correct.
On the morning of April 22nd , plant doctor and clinic coordinator Flavia Felix Huanca (pictured here) held a plant clinic for local farmers. They brought in samples of their crops which various problems, asking for her advice to diagnose what was wrong. This plant clinic, supported by training from Plantwise and the global Plantwise knowledge bank, runs every other Tuesday at a regular local fair. This is the EEA Plant Clinic of Santa Ana -Huancayo, in Municipalidad Distrital de Pucara.
May 22, 2014 4 Comments
Take a look. Farmers gathered around a plant doctor, resources on the table. Various crops which farmers have brought in for diagnosis and advice. Can you tell us where in the world is this plant clinic located? It’s one of over 700 running worldwide with support of Plantwise and partners, but that is all we’re going to tell you. Good luck!
May 15, 2014 Leave a comment
Pollination, an example of an ecosystem service © Reinhold Stansich
From the 8th-12th April experts met in Bellagio, Italy to develop a strategy to mitigate the effects emerging plant diseases are having on crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Among these experts were Plantwise staff. A major theme throughout the conference was ecosystem services and how agricultural biodiversity can enhance the provision of these services, creating resilient agro-ecosystems.
Click on the link below to read more about the conference:
Abigail Rumsey
Alexis Rendell-Dunn
Vera Barbosa
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carolinesm
Claire Beverley
Charlotte Elston
Claire Curry
Claire Shepherd
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dengephil
David Onyango Owino
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Holly Wright
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julien
Katherine Cameron
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Leanne Reeves
Miroslav Djuric
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Manju Thakur
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Guest Blogger
Rachel Hill
Sara Thomas
David Simpson
Steven Forrest
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Willis Ochilo