CABI has held a workshop to assess the progress of the Taita Taveta Plant Doctor Network in Kenya – launched to help smallholder farmers grow more and lose less to potentially devastating crop pests and diseases.
The workshop was held to ‘check-in’ with the 29 plant doctors that were trained as part of a collaborative initiative started in 2023 as part of the CABI-led global PlantwisePlus programme which sought to establish a plant doctor network within an existing public-private partnership.
This partnership consists of CABI, the Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust (MESPT), the County Government of Taita Taveta, Moonberg Organic Farm Company Ltd, and the Taita Taveta Banana Farmers’ Cooperative Society (TATABA).
Enhance the capacity and skills of the young service providers
A key aspect of the collaboration is to enhance the capacity and skills of the young service providers who offer services including farm layout and planning, de-suckering, market linkage, soil sampling, mobilizing farmers to plant tissue culture bananas, farm management for large scale producers, and scouting for quality before harvesting among other agronomic practices.
This includes the identification and diagnosis of plant health problems while giving good recommendations to farmers in various value chains including the banana, maize, tomato value chains among others.
Plant doctors have already been trained on how to give farmers effective, practical, and safe recommendations for managing plant health problems as well as how to use resources within the PlantwisePlus Toolkit.
These include the PlantwisePlus Toolkit, include the PlantwisePlus Knowledge Bank, the PlantwisePlus Factsheet Library, the CABI BioProtection Portal and online courses such as the Crop Pest Management Course.
Increase their reach and further improve their livelihoods
Suzanne Neave, Global Lead Market Access and GAP Compliance at CABI, said, “The workshop was held to review progress, two months after the plant doctors training and the launch of the first plant clinic in the county.
“The stakeholders shared experiences, identified challenges most notably lack of identification and data collection tools amongst other challenges. A comprehensive success measurement approach was discussed, and partner roles and next steps were discussed, along with the roles of partners and next steps and support needed from different stakeholders to advance the initiative were also identified.”
She added that the plant doctor training has been provided to create value added to the bundle of services the Business Service Providers (BSPs) are offering to farmers, under the MESPT supported market access programme.
Using the plant clinic approach, the service providers are reaching farmers in various forums that is enabling them to increase their reach and further improve their livelihoods.
Reducing the farmer extension service provider ratio
The BSPs now have the capacity to deliver a more comprehensive service provision. The plant clinics are expected to be mobile within the Taveta sub-county and will be one stop shop for farmer advisory, for example, farmer knowledge centers with one fixed clinic hosted at the TATABA co-operative office.
Public extension service providers from the county government and agronomists will mentor the less experienced service providers. This will work towards reducing the farmer extension service provider ratio.
Ms Neave added, “This initiative has significantly increased farmer engagement, good coordination amongst plant doctors, farmer willingness to seek advice, and boosted plant doctor’s confidence and interaction with farmers amongst other benefits. The training led to the launch of plant clinics/farmer knowledge centers eventual operation of several plant clinic sessions in various farmer forums.”
Importance of collaboration
In his address to the workshop, Hon. Eric Kyongo, The County Executive Committee Member, in- charge of the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Irrigation, and Blue Economy, for the County Government of Taita Taveta, emphasized the importance of collaboration in tackling the challenges faced by farmers.
He further stressed that the department is committed in integrating plant doctor services into county programs ensuring sustainability of the clinics. In attendance was also the sub-county agricultural office – Taveta sub-county.
The workshop ended with the development of an action plan that includes integrating plant clinics into farmer field days and scheduling of individual farm follow-up led by the county government.
Additional information
Main image: A key aspect of the collaboration is to enhance the capacity and skills of the young service providers who offer services (Credit: CABI).
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Very good initiative. Well done Kenya.