Five ways Horizon Scanning is supporting crop production
This article was originally published by CHAP As part of its International Pest Horizon Scanning (IPHS) capability, CHAP has funded the distribution of 180 tablet devices to extension workers across five countries: Ghana, Nepal, Peru, Vietnam and Malawi. These extension workers, known as plant doctors, run plant clinics under the CABI-led Plantwise programme. Plant clinics…
Africa’s smallholders to bear the brunt of COVID-19
This article was originally published by SciDev.Net Governments need to support millions of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa as the agriculture sector bears the brunt of COVID-19 lockdowns and trade restrictions, scientists say. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Africa Agriculture Outlook 2016-2025, smallholder farms form about 80 per cent of all farms in Sub-Saharan Africa and directly employ more…
Pests in a pandemic? India’s plant doctors will see you online now
This article was originally published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. During coronavirus lockdown, Indian farmers have been able to join ‘e-clinics’ to get a diagnosis of problems plaguing their crops, helping limit the damage When Victor, Mary’s husband, decided to travel abroad for work, he left her a plot of land to cultivate in southern…
Africa’s youth want to cultivate careers, not just crops
This article was originally published on SciDev.Net We need to ensure that Africa’s future farmers not only grow crops but careers as well, argues Sylvia Ng’eno By 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to a third of the world’s young people, who will play a key part in feeding future generations. No region is this phenomenon of having…
Microloans make farming profitable for Kenyan smallholders
This article was originally published on SciDev.Net This article is supported by the CASA programme. For 40-year-old Beatrice Mulwale, a smallholder farmer from western Kenya, poor yields and low income had been par for the course for most of her farming life.
A new AI-powered app scans banana crops for early signs of disease
By Emma Bryce. Reblogged from Anthropocene. The banana is the world’s most popular fruit: we consume 100 billion of them a year. And yet, their future is threatened by a spate of diseases that are ravaging crops worldwide. Now, researchers have developed a tool to tackle these silent killers: an artificially-intelligent smartphone app that can scan banana…
Transforming farmers and plant doctors into pest-smart agents in their communities
By Sathis Sri Thanarajoo. Reblogged from the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security blog. Pest-Smart program aims to increase the awareness of farmers on alternative pest-related practices and enhance the capacity of plant doctors in dealing with pests and diseases. Farmers and plant doctors in Ekxang Climate-Smart Village (CSV) in Laos were trained…
Exploring the “art” in “climate-smart”
Originally published on CGIAR CCAFS Art has a place in climate discussions. Children, who are usually deemed too young to understand complex topics such as climate change must be involved as well. A campaign with the theme “Climate Change: Youth Can Do Something” was organized on 7 October 2018 in Tra Hat Climate-Smart Village (CSV)…
Unregistered herbicides use rampant among smallholders
By Alex Abutu. Reblogged from SciDev.Net. African rice smallholders are increasingly using low-quality, unregistered herbicides because of inadequate capacity of governments to enforce strict monitoring of national pesticides regulations, a study says.
Amid global soil crisis, governments struggle to reach farmers
By Fatima Arkin. Reblogged from devex. To help tackle nutrient deficiency and plastic pollution in India’s soils, the country has one of the best knowledge delivery systems and trained human resource power in agriculture research. And yet, over 59 percent of the farming households receive no assistance from either their government or the private sector,…