PlantwisePlus Blog

A plant doctor identifying which disease is affecting this crop at a plant clinic in Kenya. © Sven Torfinn, Panos Pictures.

This week MaryLucy, a member of the Knowledge Bank team based in Nairobi, has been travelling across Kenya to meet some of our plant doctors and offer them data management training to help improve the support available to farmers. This training involves highlighting the importance of accurate data collection from farmers who attend Plantwise plant clinics, and the benefit of this to future clinics. The clinics not only provide farmers with essential information, but also allow the collection of extremely valuable data, which can then be used to assess pest and disease distributions, for example.

MaryLucy has received an incredibly positive response from the plant doctors so far. Over the coming weeks we will continue to report on the feedback from MaryLucy’s training, presenting the reactions of plant doctors across Kenya. 

6th August 2012

Martha Ndiragu – District Crops Development Officer, Trans Nzoia East, Kenya.  Martha indicated that the training was a great help to her and other frontline agricultural extension officers as it allowed them to understand the importance of the data collected at plant clinics. This, Martha said, will help them to generate and report useful information, as well as improving the practical service they are able to offer farmers.

8th August 2012

Edward S. Nyongesa – Plant doctor, Kwanza Plant Clinic in Kwanza district, Kenya. Edward revealed that it was now clear to him that the plant clinics help ensure good health of Kenya’s agricultural economy. He expressed that these clinics formed part of the crucial team needed to achieve Kenya’s food security strategy Vision 2030.

 

Bernard Sakwa – Plant doctor,  Makutano plant clinic, West Pokot District, Kenya. Bernard said he has learnt to be a better plant doctor as a result of the training, and now makes sure he listens carefully to the farmers so he can record accurate information from them. After the training Bernard announced “I am a better plant clinic doctor today than I was yesterday.”

9th August 2012

Josephat Ling’ang’a – District Agricultural Officer, Trans Nzoia, Kenya.  Josephat praised the new plant clinic record sheets, which he said will improve management strategies for farmers, as well as allow the review of how best to train farmers and agro-input dealers. He added that the new system allows the planning of work directly with farmers in mind, rather than having demonstrations dictated by the needs of the agro-input dealers.

Find out more about how Plantwise clinics work and where they are found here. 

2 Comments

  1. […] Invasives species ← Kenyan plant doctors respond to new data management […]

  2. Plantwise 2012 Highlights « The Plantwise Blog on 9th January 2013 at 11:43 AM

    […] Clinics are running regularly and data is being collected in Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Trinidad and Tobago. To read more about plant clinics in Kenya you can visit this blog: ‘Plantwise Plant Clinic at the Nairobi International Trade Fair’ by Kimani Chege and Abigail Rumsey. You can also visit this blog to watch a video of a plant doctor in Tanzania using the Plantwise Knowledge Bank to diagnose crop diseases, and read more about the training of plant doctors in Kenya in the blog post: ‘Kenyan Plant Doctors Respond to New Management’. […]

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