Plantwise joins IPPC in Rome to discuss building linkages for NPPOs
Delegates from over twenty-six countries attended last Thursday’s side event jointly-hosted by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat and the CABI-led Plantwise programme which served the goals common to both organizations: empowering countries to protect crops, thereby increasing food security. The event on the evening of April 2ndat Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of…
Who benefits from Plantwise?
As part of our Monitoring and Evaluation within Plantwise, we are identifying indicators both to help us improve the way we operate and also increase accountability to our participants, partners, and donors. As a follow-up to our blog post on International Women’s Day, one of the ways we can improve our current work and set…
Finding ‘a way forward’ at Sri Lanka’s national Plantwise forum
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC_iGco5z-E&w=560&h=315] Over 60 stakeholders from Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector came together in the hilltops over Kandy in Sri Lanka recently to exchange experiences and discover strategies for implementing the Plantwise model on the ground. Video also available on Vimeo here. Coming from extension, research, private enterprise, academia and policy-making, attendees at this national forum…
Plant health system developing well in Zambia
Since the launch of Plantwise in Zambia last year, much progress has been made to build capacity within the national plant health system. In collaboration with the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), CABI staff have successfully trained crop officers and extension staff from the Department of Agriculture, ZARI, and Self Help Africa on ‘how to…
Photo of the Month, October 2013 – Idyllic location for training in Malawi
Plantwise was launched in Malawi in May 2013 after vigorous training of plant doctors in crop pest identification and how to give recommendations based on the identified pest problem. In the 14 plant clinics widespread in Lilongwe and Mzimba, there was need to understand the role that the plant clinic data will play in the…
Days are numbered for pests in Kenya’s irrigation schemes
Report by Peter Karanja and Abigail Rumsey Between May and July this year, 22 new plant clinics were established in Kenya. Nine of these clinics were launched by the Smallscale Horticulture Development Project (SHDP), which has been funded by the African Development Bank to help smallholder farmers increase the amount that they produce and earn…
Record crop losses cost the United States $17.3B last year
Over $17 billion was spent in 2012 on farm insurance claims for destroyed crops in the U.S., up from an average of $4.1 billion per year from 2001 until 2011. This record-breaking jump in insurance pay-outs was in large part due to extreme weather conditions over the past growing season. Drought, heat and hot wind accounted…
A Happy Brinjal Farmer in the North of Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka many plant clinics are running to provide free advice to farmers. One such plant clinic at Mallavi vegetable market, received a desperate farmer with an unknown problem in his brinjal crop in the beginning of May 2013. He was fed up of using different pesticides suggested by the local agro-chemical dealer and…
Video Interview with Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzwblzjR2pA&w=560&h=315] Recently Melanie Bateman of CABI Switzerland and Dr IMO Shamie, Sierra Leone’s Director of Crops and Plantwise National Coordinator, had the unique opporunity to sit down for a meeting with Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Dr Joseph Sam Sesay. During the meeting, Dr Sesay told his story of being the first…