Teaching an app to help farmers

farmer in India holding mobile phone
CABI and the start-up Plantix work together to improve the Plantix farmer app. As a result, the app is now able to detect several diseases for the first time. Worldwide, farmers face huge problems when pests and diseases threaten their crops. The stakes are high and the task to identify precisely the cause of the…
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Why it’s so critical to continuously monitor and manage plant diseases

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Most of us understand the critical importance of monitoring the spread of diseases. And it is as important for plant diseases as it is for humans. Plant disease epidemics are often hidden from view, unlike human viral disease outbreaks. Yet food and forest production systems, as well as native…
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Update: New Pest & Disease Records (08 June 2020)

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 the first report of the fungal pathogen Alternaria alternata on Sambucus ebulus in Iran and the first report of the moth Dervishiya cadambae on grapevine Vitis vinifera.
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Test your plant health knowledge

Chinyunyu Plant Clinic in Rufunsa district, Zambia.
>> 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…
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Call for content: Knowledge Bank factsheets

The Plantwise Knowledge Bank is a gateway to practical online and offline plant health information, and reinfocing agricultural advisory services around the world that provide plant health advice to farmers. It includes diagnostic resources, best-practice pest management advice and plant clinic data analysis for targeted crop protection.
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Remote technology transfer and advisory services for farmers during COVID-19

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world are enforcing restrictions to save lives. Communities are having to change the way they live and work, often relying more on digital tools, if they can. During this unprecedented time, it is vital that smallholder farmers can still access plant health information and advice without…
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Spotted coffee grasshopper in Bangladesh

Even during the COVID lockdown, news channels buzzed in Bangladesh on the arrival of swarms of an unknown pest that were partially covering mango and guava crops, and some forest trees in Teknaf Upazila, Cox’s Bazar District.
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Update: New Pest & Disease Records (07 May 2020)

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 the first report of Lasiodiplodia theobromae causing fruit rot in Melon in Thailand and the first report of the red palm mite Raoiella indica in Manabí, Ecuador.
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Working together online to support farmers during lockdown in India

55 year old Valli Kupuswamy carries a bag of grass (for cattle) she collected from her paddy field in Embalam village outside of Pondicherry, India. Photo: Sanjit Das/Panos
“Necessity is the mother of invention” – Plato This is a famous phrase, indicating that a need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. The world is currently going through a difficult time due to COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in an almost-complete shutdown of all activities across the…
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Test your plant health knowledge

Chinyunyu Plant Clinic in Rufunsa district, Zambia.
>> 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…
Read Further