In Thiruvaiyaru, plant clinics are “a source of inspiration to do agriculture with clarity, confidence and interest.”
Since 2012, farmers in Thiruvaiyaru block, Thanjavur district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, have had been using Plantwise plant clinics to help solve problems with pests and diseases. The programme there is run by the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in collaboration with Plantwise. Agriculture is the primary livelihood of 70% of…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (09 October 2019)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include reports on a new Pseudococcidae species on Monterey cypress in Tunisia, the first record of Phenacoccus madeirensis mealybug in Algeria and two new species of weevil in the Philippines.
Test your plant health knowledge with the plant doctor quiz
>> Latest quiz just added Plantwise plant doctors are at the heart of our plant clinic network providing advice and information to farmers, logging their data for the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, and always adapting to new outbreaks and technologies. Think you’ve got what it takes to be a plant doctor? Take our online plant health…
Funding boost to help CABI ensure greater global food security
CABI has today received a funding boost from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) which will help it increase its efforts to help ensure global food security by stepping up the fight against crop pests and diseases. DFID has allocated CABI a share of a £61 million package to help equip millions more smallholder farmers around…
Improving resistance of Kenya’s cabbage and kale crops to TuMV disease
A team of international scientists from CABI, the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), NIAB EMR (UK), University of Warwick (UK) and Syngenta (Netherlands) are seeking to improve the resistance of Kenya’s cabbage and kale crops to Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV). In the distantly-related Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa), a potentially durable TuMV disease resistance trait was identified by Professor John Walsh at the…
Indian NGO supports farmers by using greenhouse agriculture
In the south Indian region of Hyderabad, a non-profit called Kheyti has developed an affordable solution to income stability and climate-resilient crop production for smallholder farmers and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) – greenhouses. The organisation founders spent countless hours meeting with Indian farmers to understand the range of issues threatening farming communities. “When we…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (06 September 2019)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include a report on a new root-knot nematode parasite on coffee in Vietnam, a report on a new variant of the moth Cyana peregrina Walker in India and a report on…
Plantwise releases two educational games for plant doctors
The use of digital devices such as smartphones and tablets to access and share information is rapidly expanding in all areas of our lives, and the agricultural sector is no different. Plantwise is already making use of digital devices, especially in rural areas of the world. Plant doctors, using smart phones and tablets not only…
‘$10bn to feed 10 billion by 2050’, CABI tells AGRF
CABI has told the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2019 that investment in agritech needs to double to at least $10bn a year if the world’s smallholder farmers are to help feed a global population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. Dr Dennis Rangi, CABI’s Director General, Development, speaking as part of a panel discussion on…
A new AI-powered app scans banana crops for early signs of disease
By Emma Bryce. Reblogged from Anthropocene. The banana is the world’s most popular fruit: we consume 100 billion of them a year. And yet, their future is threatened by a spate of diseases that are ravaging crops worldwide. Now, researchers have developed a tool to tackle these silent killers: an artificially-intelligent smartphone app that can scan banana…