PRISE Quarterly progress report- June 2017

Holly WrightLeave a comment

PRISE is a 5 year Plantwise project, funder by UK Space, to deliver a Pest Risk Information SErvice.  You can read more about the project background here. Each quarter we will up date you on project progress.

Meeting Partner priorities

PRISE inception workshops were held in Kenya, Ghana, and Zambia in March 2017. In the workshops it was recognised  by partners that PRISE is a five year project and that the full benefits will only be fully available at the end. However to ensure that we deliver value in the interim we asked partners to prioritise the order in which we should focus on users, crops and pests. Each year a new release of PRISE will incorporate more users, crops and pests driven by partner’s prioritisation of which to tackle first.

Partners prioritised plant doctors/extension workers as the group of users who should receive PRISE first. User interface surveys have now been conducted with 60 plant doctors/extension workers, across the three countries, to ensure the system meets their needs. The results of these surveys will be worked into prototypes which will then be shown to plant doctors to ask for their feedback. The website specification for information output has also been completed.

maize stalk borer
Maize Stalk Borer- Copyright CABI

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CABI leads rapid identification of Fall Armyworm

Claire CurryLeave a comment
Fall Armyworm larvae seen in Ghana (J. Crozier, CABI)

Identifying armyworms usually involves taking the larvae that have caused the damage, waiting for them to develop in to adults and then studying the body and markings of these adults to identify the species collected. This process causes delays to identification, and could therefore delay action for what are some of the most ravaging crop pests in the world. However, scientists from CABI and Ghana’s Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate have been able to speed up identification using molecular techniques to confirm the identity of fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) from the larvae alone.

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Why a problem of plenty is hurting India’s farmers

Kate DeyLeave a comment
Vegetable market stand, India. Image: Mohamed Shareef via Wikimedia Commons

By Soutik Biswas. Reblogged from BBC News.

Farmers are on the boil again in India. In western Maharashtra state, they have been on strike for a week in some seven districts now, spilling milk on the streets, shutting down markets, protesting on the roads and attacking vegetable trucks. In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, curfew has been imposed after five farmers were killed in clashes with police on Tuesday. Last month, farmers in southern Telangana and Andhra Pradesh staged protests and burnt their red chilli crop.

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E-plant clinics rolled out in Jammu, India

Marin HirschfeldLeave a comment

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Last year Plantwise launched in Jammu & Kashmir state, India, with the establishment of 15 plant clinics across 3 districts in the Jammu region. This year sees the launch of an exciting new development, with the roll-out of e-plant clinics to revolutionize the extension system and support the quick transfer of information and advice to farmers via text messages on their mobile phones. This process began with a series of training workshops last month, which were officially inaugurated by Jenab Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Minister of Agriculture, Government of Jammu & Kashmir.

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Working with AgriMedia to address climate change in Vietnam

Marin HirschfeldLeave a comment
agrimedia
(From left) Dr. Malvika Chaudhary, Regional Coordinator, Plantwise Asia; Dr. A Sivapragasam, Regional Director, CABI-SEA; Dr. Mai Quang Vin, Chairman of AgriMedia; and To Duc Hai, CEO of AgriMedia

In the busy streets of Hanoi, history was made last month. CABI Southeast Asia (CABI-SEA) signed a memorandum of understanding with Agricultural Multimedia Joint Stock Company (AgriMedia) – a private company working in the field of agriculture. As a pioneer in M2M applications in agriculture, AgriMedia was established in 2014 and aims to provide a wide range of effective agricultural solutions via agricultural information services on mobile phone and applications from smart agricultural technologies.

With 50 staff, advanced agricultural technologies and a broad network of leading agricultural experts in Vietnam, AgriMedia is committed to provide high-quality and timely agricultural information related to domestic and global commodity price and market, weather forecast advisory or expert advice on agriculture techniques, bringing benefits to farmers and agricultural enterprises in Vietnam. In fact, AgriMedia is the only private company to be given a licence by the government to provide weather forecast. It currently works with a Japanese company to provide services using smart weather stations installed in the central agro-ecological zones of Vietnam.

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Working with women farmers to make Cambodian communities “Plantwise”

Marin HirschfeldLeave a comment
A plant assistant of Plant Clinic in Rohal Suong is recently recruited as an agricultural extension worker for her commune. Women can help reach more sectors in the communities. Photo: Dyna Eam (WorldFish)

Greater involvement of women in plant clinics has improved the climate resilience of the farmers in Rohal Suong village, Cambodia. Women farmers play a critical role in agricultural production and food security, as well as household welfare in most Southeast Asian countries. According to a Census of Agriculture in Cambodia in 2013, of the 82% of Cambodians engaged in the agriculture sector, at least half of them were women.

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