How plant clinics are reaching female farmers in Honduras
Written by Eduardo Hidalgo and José Gómez The Plantwise programme supports local implementing organizations in their efforts to mainstream gender equality in their activities. The Plantwise steering committee in Honduras invited Olinda Rubio (Chief of Communications at the Ministry of Agriculture [SAG-SENASA] and gender expert), to join the team and lead the in-country Plantwise gender strategy, which focuses on ensuring…
Two-day training in Trinidad on plant disease diagnosis
Reblogged from the Trinidad Express. A two day training on Plant Disease Diagnosis was conducted in the Department of Food, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine from July 13 to 14 to agricultural extension officers of Trinidad and Tobago. The training was organised under the auspices of The…
Campaigning for Safe Chemical Use in Uganda
A loud booming voice on a megaphone breaks the silence in the farming village of Kaptum centre..”Akwaa! lo mite kapurto nyepo ceyec cepo nyepokaptisyet!”, (come attend a plant health rally by ministry of agriculture officials). Farmers quickly gather and listen attentively as Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) officials conduct the plant health…
Plantwise programme expansion in Brazil
Plantwise is being implemented and coordinated in Brazil by EMBRAPA in collaboration with Empaer and the local government of Mato Grosso. Last year, faculty members from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) at Lagoa do Sino campus, in Buri, São Paulo State, expressed their interest in incorporating the plant clinics approach into their extension services in order…
Plantwise Brazilian team participates at EMBRAPA’s “6th Field Day on Integrated Systems for Agricultural Production”
Dr Yelitza Colmenarez and José Gómez represented the Plantwise programme in a field day organized by the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA: Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation). EMBRAPA is an affiliated institution to the Ministry of Agriculture, devoted to the advancement of Brazilian agriculture through technology. The event was hosted by EMBRAPA’s agro-silviculture unit in Sinop,…
Plantwise Annual Report 2015 released
The Plantwise Annual Report for 2015 has been launched. The report is an update on programme implementation between January and December 2015, listing key highlights along with details on progress, lessons learned and next steps for each of the three programme components: Plant Health Systems Development, the Knowledge Bank and Monitoring & Evaluation. Highlights include: 4.5 million farmers reached through plant clinics, plant health rallies,…
Feasibility of adopting an IPM approach for sustainable Christophene production in the Northern Range of Trinidad
Contributed by Aldo Hanel, CABI. Brasso Secco is a pristine environment located in the Northern Range of Trinidad in close proximity to the world famous Asa Wright Nature Centre. This farming community, among others, is nestled deep in the bosom of the of the Northern Range where approximately 300 family farms depend on Christophene production for…
Collaboration between Plantwise and the University of Queensland
In 2014, Holly alerted our blog followers to the Plantwise factsheet library app, aimed to provide country extension workers with a portable electronic library of pest management factsheets. Since then, there have been in excess of 65,000 sessions of the app by our global users.
Tackling pests and diseases in Trinidad and Tobago [Video]
The latest episode of the Tech4agri web series focuses on a number of farmers who attended Plantwise plant clinics in Trinidad and Tobago and received follow-up visits from Plantwise and NAMDEVCO extension workers. As CABI’s Naitram Ramnanan explains: “We decided to follow up by visiting the farmer in the field and then realised that it was a pervasive problem in the christophene-growing areas of the…