Plantwise: connecting smallholders to knowledge through ICT interventions
The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the last decade has opened new avenues in knowledge management that could play important roles in meeting the prevailing challenges related to sharing, exchanging and disseminating knowledge and technologies. The types of ICT-enabled services are capable of improving the capacity and livelihoods of poor smallholders are…
Factsheet of the month: January 2016 – Blast in Paddy
Scientists from the University of Delaware, USA, have recently uncovered critical information about the effect that deadly rice blast fungus has on rice plants, which could lead to more effective effective control measures in the fight against this disease. The team found that Magnaporthe grisea, the fungus responsible for rice blast, causes an increase in…
Update: Plant Health News (15 Jul 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including Theni banana farmers in Tamil Nadu adopting more efficient production techniques, why GM crops have been slow to take hold in Africa and the bio slurry pellet method of rice cultivation that could save farmers time and money. Click on the link to read more…
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (01 Apr 15)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this fortnight include the first report of Alternaria leaf blight disease on oil palm in Thailand, caused by Alternaria longipes, the detection of a virus affecting chilli pepper in Chihuahua, Mexico and the…
Factsheet of the month: February 2015 – Sugarcane Woolly Aphids
India is one of the world’s largest producers of sugarcane which is used in many food and drink products. Sugarcane is vulnerable to a variety of pests, including sugarcane woolly aphids which caused a 30% yield loss in the outbreak of 2002. This pest is constrained to south and east Asia, (see the Plantwise distribution…
Update: Plant Health News (28 Jan 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including native ants helping to improve cocoa yields in Indonesia, unseasonal rains affecting crops in India and local mangoes in the Philippines declared free from mango seed weevil. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
Mobile data collection – can it work in Tamil Nadu, India?
Over the past year, the Plantwise Knowledge Bank team has been conducting an e-plant clinic pilot in Kenya. Following the success of this pilot, we are now seeing if we can apply the lessons learnt in Kenya to other Plantwise countries. In December, we travelled to Thanjavur city, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India,…
Update: Plant Health News (15 Jan 15)
Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including Crops in Brazil still suffering after last year’s drought, the Malawi farmers advised to diversify their crops and the gene that affects nitrogen fixation and yield of soybean. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
A plant doctor’s fight against rice blast in Tamil Nadu, India
Story by Malvika Chaudhary, CABI in India Photo: Saurav Paul Vargur is a small village in the Tamil Nadu state of India where paddy is grown on a large scale. The plant clinics in this region are very popular with farmers. For plant doctor Sarangpani it was a usual day, anticipating the regular crowd of paddy farmers in…
Roundtable brings high-tech farming ideas to India’s risk-prone ecologies
David J. Spielman joined the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2004, and is currently a senior research fellow based in Washington, DC. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agricultural science, technology and innovation policy; seed systems and input markets; and community-driven rural development. His work maintains a regional emphasis on…