Archive for the ‘Technology transfer’ Category

Place of Technology in the Fall Armyworm Crisis

Posted in Emerging/invasive pests, Technology transfer on March 7, 2022| Leave a Comment »

What’s the Place of Technology in the Fall Armyworm Crisis?

Alice Gribbin

Apr 17, 2018

Armyworm on a leaf. Photo credit: G. Goergen, IITA — What’s the Place of Technology in the Fall Armyworm Crisis? Photo credit: G. Goergen, IITA

This post was written by Ellen Galdava of FHI 360 and Kwasi Donkor of USAID.

Everyone from amateur gardeners to agricultural experts know that pest management is one of the most important aspects of good agricultural practice. This remains true for smallholder farmers. For smallholder farmers who often borrow money for seed and equipment before a harvest, a pest outbreak can not only destroy a harvest, it can also mean serious financial setback. Better equipping smallholder farmers to manage pest outbreaks will lead to stronger crop yields and increased food security. However, this is easier said than done.

What is the Fall Armyworm and How Bad Is It?

In 2016, the fall armyworm, a pest native to the Americas that can demolish a large number of crops, arrived as an invasive species in Africa. A smallholder farmer in Africa is already saddled with everyday challenges that range from weather to accessing financial services. The fall armyworm outbreak further endangered food stability and increased the hurdles of everyday life.

Compared to other pests, the fall armyworm is especially damaging because it eats both the vegetative and reproductive parts of plants. The destructive nature of the fall armyworm makes it critical and expensive to exterminate. Brazil, for example, spends up to $600 million annually fighting it. And while scientists and farmers in the Americas are knowledgeable about and prepared for fall armyworm, its appearance in Nigeria in January 2016 took African farmers by surprise. While they had seen a local armyworm before, they had never encountered this invasive species. Nearly two years after initially being spotted in Nigeria, with the help of its quick reproductive cycle and unique migratory capacity, in December 2017, the fall armyworm had spread to 38 other African countries.

The existing fall armyworm crisis in Africa endangers crop yields, food security and most of all threatens to deepen the poverty gap. Data from the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) shows that 13.5 million tons of maize valued at $3 billion are at risk of fall armyworm in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is equivalent to 20 percent of the total production in the region. These numbers show that a potential food crisis in Africa may be imminent if the right pest management solutions are not found soon.

Technological Solutions

In trying to resolve development challenges rapidly and efficiently, development practitioners increasingly turn to technology to produce quick, efficient and scalable solutions. For that reason, mSTAR and Digital Development for Feed the Future (D2FTF) decided to explore the possibility of developing a mobile application for pest management. The goal was to enable smallholder farmers to diagnose and find treatment for pests. The mobile application would enable farmers to quickly identify the pest and decide on the treatment plan. Before investing in the application, the team conducted a landscape assessment of existing technologies and interviewed farmers and extension workers in Ghana to identify the feasibility of such a high-tech intervention.

Diagnostic vs. Management Support Technology

While analyzing existing pest management technologies, it became apparent that agriculture development organizations generally use two types: diagnostic and management support technology. An example of a diagnostic technology is Plantix, a machine learning application, which assists farmers and extension workers to identify pests. An example of management support technology is using WhatsApp messaging groups as a management tool to enable trained extension workers, plant doctors and farmers to diagnose plant infections and determine the best pesticide for the specific pest.

Most organizations working on pest management have been focused on using management support technology solutions rather than diagnostic technologies. For example, USAID/Ghana’s Agriculture Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) project, which improves the competitiveness of agricultural value chains, implemented pheromone traps and GIS mapping to model the movement of fall armyworm. ADVANCE employees, in partnership with extension officers, collected and analyzed data from 57 traps to track the spread of fall armyworm. Also in Ghana, CABI, an organization that supports farmers, uses WhatsApp as a place for plant doctors and extension workers to share information and ask questions about pests. In Zambia, CABI created Pest Risk Information Service which notifies plant doctors when there is a risk of pest infection.

While implementing strong management technologies, CABI and USAID/Ghana’s ADVANCE project have begun to implement diagnostic systems as well. These include hotlines, training extension workers and plant doctors on how to identify pests, and recommending the best solutions to manage them. CABI’s WhatsApp groups have been used by a limited number of extension workers and plant doctors as a source of identifying pests through picture sharing. While the adoption of these support technologies has expanded, most organizations researched have not used more sophisticated diagnostic support technologies, such as Plantix.

Development organizations have also been using low-tech solutions to provide more information on managing pests. With the recent invasion of fall armyworm, they now focus especially on spreading fall armyworm information. In many cases, however, these solutions were reactive to the invasion and not proactive. For example, Farm Radio International, which uses radio programming to share information on agricultural best practices, began integrating pest management for fall armyworm into programming only after the outbreak in Ghana in May 2017. This was nearly a year and a half after the initial outbreak in Nigeria. Similarly, Farmerline, Esoko and Viamo began sharing information on pest management and fall armyworm via messages in local languages after the outbreak.

A Continental Solution that Combines Both?

With the understanding that most technology solutions used by agricultural development organizations revolve around management, mSTAR and D2FTF decided to explore the feasibility of the development of a mobile application that would both diagnose and provide a treatment plan. However, during the research it became apparent that with the spread and rate of the fall armyworm outbreak, interventions need to be deployed not only at the country level but on a continental level. Therefore, D2FTF decided to launch the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize instead of developing a mobile application specifically for Ghana. This prize will assist USAID in creating innovative digital tools and approaches to track the path of the pest, communicate interventions to smallholders and relay information to agriculture decision-makers and agents. The Fall Armyworm Tech Prize opened for applications on March 28, 2018. To learn more, follow the link here. FILED UNDER:AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

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Integrated Pest Management to Reduce Pesticides

Posted in Control tactics, Crop protection, Emerging/invasive pests, IPM, Pests, Pheromones, Plant Pathogens, Technology transfer, Weeds on February 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Using Integrated Pest Management to Reduce Pesticides and Increase Food Safety

Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab

Mar 06, 2018

Photo: A farmer sprays pesticides on cucurbit crops in Bangladesh.

Written by Sara Hendery, Communications Coordinator of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management

In 2017, thousands of beetles and weevils moved into Ethiopia’s Amhara region. Like most living things, they were hungry, but their appetites desired a specific earthly delicacy: weeds.

Zygogramma, the leaf-feeding beetle, and Listronotus, the stem-boring weevil, were released in Ethiopia by Virginia State University, collaborators of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management, funded by USAID and housed at Virginia Tech. Zygogramma and Listronotus combat Parthenium, an invasive weed that threatens food security and biodiversity, causes respiratory issues and rashes on human skin, and taints meat and dairy products when consumed by animals. Biological control and other holistic agricultural methods are specialities of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Innovation Lab. Its team of scientists and collaborators generate IPM technologies to fight, reduce and manage crop-destroying pests in developing countries while reducing the use of pesticides.

The application of pesticides is a major threat to human health. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 50,000 tons of obsolete pesticides blanket the already at-risk land. Pesticides can taint food, water, soil and air, causing headaches, drowsiness, fertility issues and life-threatening illness. Especially vulnerable populations are children, pregnant women and farmers themselves; hundreds of thousands of known deaths occur each year due to pesticide poisoning. Pesticides often increase crop yields, but an abundance of crops is anachronistic when the cost is human life.

In a small community in Bangladesh, farmers used to rely on pesticides to manage insects and agricultural diseases destroying crops, but community members began to develop symptoms from the excessive pesticide use, and, more than that, children were doing the spraying. The IPM Innovation Lab implemented a grafting program in the community that generated eggplant grafted varieties resistant to bacterial wilt. Eggplant yields increased dramatically and purchases of chemical pesticides dropped, which meant safer and healthier produce for families.

This story is one of many. The IPM Innovation Lab taps into a collection of inventive technologies in both its current phase of projects in East Africa and Asia, and since its inception in 1993, to enhance the livelihoods and standards of living for smallholder farmers and people across the globe:

In Vietnam, dragon fruit is covered in biodegradable plastic bags to protect the plants from fungal disease.
In Niger, the release of parasitoids eliminates the pearl millet headminer.
The spread of coconut dust inside seedling trays grows healthy plants in India.
Parasitic wasps destroy the papaya mealybug from India to Florida.
Trichoderma, a naturally occurring fungus in soil, fights against fungal diseases in India, the Philippines and elsewhere.
Cuelure bait traps save cucurbits from fruit flies in Bangladesh.
Eggplant fruit and shootborer baits protect eggplants from insect damage in Nepal, India and Bangladesh.

Pesticides do not necessarily eliminate pest invasion; they eliminate even the “good” insects on plants. Insects often develop resistance to popular chemicals when applied frequently, so not only is chemical spraying sometimes unnecessary, it is excessive.

Tuta absoluta, for example, is a tomato leafminer destroying tomato crops across the globe. In Spain, in the first year of the pest’s introduction, pesticides were applied 15 times per season, but the pest is resistant to pesticides and is so small (about the size of a stray pencil mark) that it often burrows inside the plant rather than around it. The IPM Innovation Lab and its collaborators generated one-of-a-kind modeling to track the movement of the species and introduced pheromone traps and neem-based bio-pesticides to help manage its spread, further ensuring the implementation of a series of technologies, rather than just relying on one, to reduce crop damage. The age-old saying “two heads are better than one” is accurate — just ask Zygogramma and Listronotus.

In developing countries, it is difficult to regulate the amount of chemical pesticides that make it onto crops, thus increasing the risk that chemicals will have a dramatic effect on the safety of food and the potential for exposure to foreign markets. One of the reasons pesticide over-application is common in developing countries is due to misinformation. In Cambodian rice production, pesticides are often misused because labels are printed in a foreign language; it is common that farmers mix two to five pesticides, resulting in pesticide poisoning. The IPM Innovation Lab’s project in Cambodia reduces the number of pesticides in rice production by introducing host-plant resistance and biological control.

Also, a fundamental practice of the IPM Innovation Lab is conducting trainings and symposia for farmers and IPM collaborators across the world to educate on the use and implementation of IPM technologies, further reducing the risk of possible harm to crops and human life. Additionally, IPM Innovation Lab partners with agriculture input suppliers and markets in project communities to ensure that bio-pesticides and IPM materials such as traps are readily available and that the purchase of pesticides are not the only option.

Ultimately, when you spray, you pay. The IPM Innovation Lab prioritizes both human and plant health by reducing the use of pesticides, and with the human population growing by the thousands every day, it is crucial that food is not only abundant but also safe and healthy to eat.

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Cross-Border Biological Control Technology Transfer

Posted in Biological control, Emerging/invasive pests, IPM, Technology transfer on December 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Cross-Border Technology Transfer: Biological Control of the Fall Armyworm in Asia and Africa

Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab

Jul 15, 2019

This post was written by Sara Hendery.

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) is becoming a household name around the world, but not for good reasons – the pest, native to the tropical and subtropical Americas, devours over 300 plant species, including maize, which feeds millions of people every day. In Africa alone, the fall armyworm has already caused nearly $13.3 billion in crop losses in just three years. Resilient to most pesticides and harsh climates, the pest has shown no signs of yielding since its arrival in Nigeria in 2016.

The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management (IPM Innovation Lab) projects that a chemical-free solution is key to long-term management of the fall armyworm. In Niger in July, the team will help support a training focused on biological control of the invasive pest hosted by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), University of Maradi in Niger, and the National Institute for Research on Food and Nutrition (INRAN). The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals, and the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Sorghum and Millet Compact are also supporters of the training.

The IPM Innovation Lab will be sending participants from Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, and Bangladesh to attend the training in Niger in an effort to catalyze cross-continental knowledge and information exchange. Also in attendance will be participants from Ghana, Togo, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroun, Sudan and Niger.

“Maize is a staple crop in both Africa and Asia,” said Muni Muniappan, Director of the IPM Innovation Lab. “Biological control offers an economically and environmentally friendly approach to combatting the fall armyworm and the technology is easily transferrable to more than one country and continent. It’s important that in already fragile economic situations, we introduce options that are truly viable.”

In 2018, in collaboration with ICRISAT and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), the IPM Innovation Lab helped find two natural enemies of the fall armyworm, Telenomus and Trichogramma, which attack the eggs of the pest. Telenomus and Trichogramma populations are low early in the season, hence, mass production and timely release of the natural enemies will suppress the pest throughout the cropping season.

The training will cover status and identification of the fall armyworm, mass production of both Telenomus and Trichogramma, best laboratory practices, scouting for egg and larval natural enemies in the field, and field release. Also covered will be case studies of successful biological control, especially the case of using natural enemies against the pearl millet head miner in the Sahel and the case of using classical biological control against the papaya mealybug.

Due to the fall armyworm’s unique ability to burrow inside the whorl of plants, conventional pesticides, which are already costly, are not practical options. The pest moves quickly – two or three generations of the pest can feed off a single crop during a growing season before moving on, and a female can lay 1,000 eggs during her lifetime. Smallholder farmers, many of whom live and work on less than an acre of land, are especially vulnerable to the pest’s attack.

“By the end of the training we expect participants to master how to scout for fall armyworm parasitoids and how to mass rear and release Telenomus and Trichogramma,” said Malick Ba, principal scientist at ICRISAT. “They should be able to establish cultures of natural enemies back home for use in their own biological control programs.”

The same natural enemies of the fall armyworm occur in both Asia and Africa. A major component of the Niger training will be preparing and guiding participants on how to garner support for scaling up biological control programs in their respective countries.

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East Africa: Digital Engagement and Training Helps Increase Agro-Dealer and Farmer Knowledge on Integrated Pest Management

Posted in Biopesticide, Education, gender., IPM, Technology transfer on December 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Digital Engagement and Training Helps Increase Agro-Dealer and Farmer Knowledge on Integrated Pest Management in East Africa

Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab

Aug 19, 2021

A group of people training with the Tanzanian Agricultural Research Institute (TARI)

This post is written by Sara Hendery, communications coordinator for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management.

Given Tanzania’s diverse geographical landscape, it’s no surprise the country is among the world’s top 20 producers of vegetables. Nevertheless, farmers remain in search of ways to combat the pests and diseases that threaten crop yields every season.

Results of a survey conducted by Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management partners at the Tanzanian Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) show that the majority of Tanzanian farmers receive key knowledge on how to manage pests and disease not only from extension personnel, but often from agricultural supply dealers, or agro-dealers. While agro-dealers do carry valuable information, resources and inputs, the survey also shows that many agro-dealers have limited formal knowledge on vegetable production or protective measures for applying chemical pesticides.

To address these gaps, TARI began providing cohesive training to agro-dealers, farmers and extension officers on vegetable production and pest and disease management. Training covers such areas as Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and safe handling and use of agricultural inputs, including pesticides. Thus far, 500 participants have been trained in the Coast and Morogoro regions. The GAP training in particular helps farmers build capacity in reporting and record-keeping, assessing input quality and crop hygiene, and training in IPM provides information on bio- and botanical pesticides, pruning, developing seedlings in a nursery environment and how to apply pesticides with minimal body exposure.

“Knowing that farmers receive their pest and disease management knowledge from agro-dealers provides us important insight into how to best reach farmers with up-to-date information,” said Dr. Fred Tairo, principal agricultural research officer at TARI-Mikocheni. “If we want farmers to adopt sustainable, climate-smart and productive inputs that might be outside of their typical use, an important pathway to reaching them is through the people that farmers already trust and are familiar with.”

In a group of 69 agro-dealers surveyed, only 49 were registered and licensed to run agricultural shops. The 20 unregistered participants had received no formal training in crop production or pesticide safety and use, and most participants not only had no prior knowledge on how to dispose of expired pesticides, but did not sell bio-pesticides or chemical pesticide alternatives at their shops. Since registering as an agro-dealer can cost nearly $200, TARI is collaborating with the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI), a regulatory authority for pesticides in Tanzania, to consider lowering the costs.

TARI and the IPM Innovation Lab are increasing communication through digital platforms to reach more agricultural actors with safe and effective approaches to pest and disease management. A Kiswahili-based (Swahili) WhatsApp group named “Kilima cha Mboga kisasa,” or modern vegetable cultivation, currently shares information with 154 farmers, extension agents and agro-dealers in Tanzania who can use the app to cite crop threats and receive expert management guidance in return.

Participants post a picture or video of the crop problem for immediate diagnosis. Not only do agro-dealers in the group directly learn about farmers’ most pressing problems, but they can use the platform to market agri-inputs, including the IPM products they learn about through the platform.

“Even if members of this group do not necessarily follow up with formal training we offer, this is a low-stakes knowledge-sharing space that they can be a part of and receive guidance from,” Tairo added.

To increase access to information and inputs, the IPM Innovation Lab is also collaborating with Real IPM, a private company based in Kenya that develops low-cost biological and holistic crop solutions available in Kenya and Tanzania. In just one year, the company has provided training to thousands of farmers in seven counties in Kenya by targeting farmer groups, the majority of which are made up of women. Real IPM has developed training manuals on IPM, a WhatsApp group for crop health assistance and a free web portal for diagnosis and IPM recommendations of specific crop threats.

“Our goal is to make IPM solutions more accessible,” said Ruth Murunde, research and development manager at Real IPM. “When you enter a pest or disease into our web portal, those images, diagnosis and IPM recommendations stay posted. We know that many farmers are experiencing similar issues to one another and collective action against crop threats is an effective way to combat them more long-term.”

While technology constraints remain — including smartphone, internet and electricity access — making learning spaces available for a range of crop production actors is critical to adoption of sustainable, effective farming solutions.

Currently, the Real IPM database hosts over 7,000 participants and has collected over 200 infected crop images.

“The Real IPM technical team is actively working to support farmers by providing biopesticides as a solution for mitigating pests and diseases on vegetable crops to ensure sustainable agriculture for smallholder farmers,” added Murunde. “Our information networks help disseminate best practice methods for using those tools.”

For more information on IPM training or Real IPM products, contact saraeh91@vt.edu.

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‘News from PestNet’

Posted in Crop protection, Emerging/invasive pests, News, Pest diagnostics, Technology transfer on November 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Saturday, 27 November 2021 17:37:00

Grahame Jackson posted a new submission ‘News from PestNet’

Submission

News from PestNet

Hi Everyone

We are excited to tell you that PestNet has joined forces with the Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds app (compiled by PestNet). It seemed sensible to put these two Pestnet endeavours together. Some time ago, we mentioned that the website had been redesigned to reflect the changes; now we have completed the amalgamation with new mobile apps.

You can see the changes if you visit the website here. And you can download the new mobile apps by searching for “PestNet” or “Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds” from the Google and Apple stores.

Hope you like the changes!

All the best

PestNet Moderators

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PlantwisePlus Launches Video

Posted in Education, Technology transfer on October 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »

October 7, 2021

Laura Hollis

No Comments

Watch the PlantwisePlus Launch Video

This week saw the digital launch of CABI’s new global programme – PlantwisePlus. The online event featured presentations from both CABI representatives as well as partner organisations, including FAO and the governments of Kenya and the Netherlands.https://www.youtube.com/embed/YwglWPNK1m0?feature=oembedPlantwisePlus launch video

The event was an opportunity to highlight the impact CABI’s Plantwise and Action on Invasives programmes have had since launching in 2011 and how PlantwisePlus aims to build on those achievements.

Contributors to the event included:

– Dr Daniel Elger, Chief Executive Officer, CABI

– Dr Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist, FAO

– Prof Hamadi Boga, Permanent Secretary at the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries

– Astrid Mastenbroek, Senior Policy Advisor on Food and Nutritional Security at the Netherlands Minsitry for Foreign Affairs

– Dr Ulrich Kuhlman, Executive Director of Global Operations, CABI

– Dr Dennis Rangi, Director General for Development, CABI

In his welcome address, CABI’s CEO Daniel Elger spoke of the knowledge and experience that underpins CABI’s work in solving problems in agriculture and the environment.

“That’s why CABI is so well positioned to deliver a global programme that will make a significant impact, helping smallholder farmers to have increased incomes and grow safer and higher quality food through sustainable approaches to crop production.”
Daniel Elger, Chief Executive Officer, CABI

Dr Ismahane Elouafi, FAO Chief Scientist, spoke of the challenges facing plant health and global food systems. In her presentation, Dr Elouafi emphasised the importance of stakeholder development programmes such as PlantwisePlus in tackling the challenges facing agri-food system.

“These programs had improved farmers yields, so there is more food and more income for rural communities. … FAO has collaborated in many areas with CABI in the past and we look forward to working with CABI again with their PlantwisePlus programme.”
Dr Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist, FAO

PlantwisePlus launch — Female farmer © CABI

Professor Hamadi Boga, Permanent Secretary at the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries spoke of the impact Plantwise has had in Kenya over the last ten years. Pests and diseases are major obstacles to productivity among Kenyan farmers. Since 2011, the Kenyan government has been working with Plantwise to address these challenges.

“Workers have up-to-date information and, the platform that has been created out of this project, will guarantee success and increase productivity and higher income for farmers.”
Professor Hamadi Boga, Permanent Secretary at the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries

Astrid Mastenbroek, Senior Policy Advisor on Food and Nutritional Security at the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs explained why the Netherlands government-supported Plantwise in the past and will be supporting PlantwisePlus going forward.

“We expect that PlantwisePlus will contribute significantly to sustainable agricultural development … we look forward to the successful delivery of this programme.”
Astrid Mastenbroek, Netherlands Minsitry for Foreign Affairs

CABI’s Executive Director of Global Operations, Dr Ulrich Kuhlman, is also the new PlantwisePlus Programme Executive. Dr Kuhlman provided an outline of PlantwisePlus including the challenges the programme seeks to address and the outcomes being worked towards.

Dr Kuhlman gave details on the four focus areas for the new programme: (a) strengthening detection of and response to pest outbreaks; (b) providing public and private agricultural service providers with better digital advisory tools to support farmers in sustainable crop management; (c) enhancing the availability of nature-positive and low-risk plant protection products to reduce reliance on high-risk farm inputs; (d) increasing consumer demand for and supply to local markets of safer, higher quality and locally produced food.

Attendees were invited to participate in a question-and-answer session with the PlantwisePlus global team leaders: Claire Curry, Dr Monica Kansiime, Dr Ivan Rwomushana and Dr Belinda Luke. They were joined by Dr Wade Jenner, Deputy Programme Executive for PlantwisePlus.

The event ended with a closing statement from CABI’s Director General for Development, Dr Dennis Rangi. Dr Rangi thanked the donors for their contributions to the event.

“PlantwisePlus is a programme built on partnerships and it is precisely this spirit of collaboration that we have experienced today that will ensure the success of the programme.”
Dr Dennis Rangi, Director General for Development, CABI

The e-launch is now available online: watch the PlantwisePlus launch

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FAO: Registration for IPPC Fall Armyworm webinar series

Posted in Emerging/invasive pests, Food Security, Insects, Pests, Quarantine, Technology transfer, Webinars on October 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Registration is open for the IPPC webinar series on Fall Armyworm Training Material

Posted on Mon, 27 Sep 2021, 16:16 Responsive image

IPPC Secretariat invites interested users to register for the “Fall Armyworm Training Material: FAO/IPPC Prevention, Preparedness, and Response Guidelines for Spodoptera frugiperda” webinar series. (Please register individually for all three sessions in the series)

Webinar 1: 22 October 12:00-13:30 (CET) Register here

Content: Introduction, General launch and guidelines presentation, including FAW distribution and biology

Webinar 2: 19 November 12:00-13:30 (CET) Register here

Content: Fall Armyworm Prevention and Preparedness (When FAW is still absent from a country)

Webinar 3: 10 December 12:00-13:30 (CET) Register here

Content: Fall Armyworm Response and Communication (When FAW has been officially detected and confirmed by a country)

Webinars are addressed to Quarantine and biosecurity experts, NPPOs and RPPOs staffs, researchers supporting NPPOs, producer associations, technical assistance organizations, manufacturers of technical means of control, and surveillance.

The webinar will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation into French and Arabic.

To consult the detailed program and more information, please visit: https://www.ippc.int/en/news/workshops-events/webinars/fall-armyworm-faw-training-part-1-22-october-part-2-19-november-and-part-3-10-december/…..

Tags:
FAW
Webinar

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Africa: Mobile App To Support Farmers Against Pests

Posted in Push-pull technology, Technology transfer, Uncategorized on August 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Africa Develops Mobile App To Support Farmers Against Pests

August 24, 2021 Arsalan Ahmad news, research, Technology

A mobile phone app – launched today by an international team of scientists – will support farmers across Africa to adopt environmentally friendly ways of protecting their crops from pests.

African smallholder farmers face major challenges from weeds such as striga and insect pests such as fall armyworm. Fall armyworm is a serious threat to food security and livelihoods and already affects at least 400,000 hectares, causing crop losses worth an estimated $3 billion a year.

But a solution exists – ‘push-pull technology’ – and it avoids the need to use harmful and expensive chemical pesticides.

Push-pull technology is a scientific method of planting crops such as maize and sorghum alongside particular species of forage grasses and legumes, which repel pests and supress weeds to support farmers.

The method was developed by scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kenya with partners and is designed to protect the plants against devastating pests like the fall armyworm and the striga weed, with the companion plants also improving soil fertility.

But a major challenge is how to communicate advice and information about this crop management technique to millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. To help address this challenge, a new mobile phone app – called Push-Pull – has been launched by Agape Innovations Ltd, in collaboration with a team of scientists from the University of Leeds, Keele University and icipe.

The app is part of a larger project called ‘Scaling up Biocontrol Innovations in Africa’ funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), which seeks to understand how biocontrol methods have been used across Africa and to encourage their uptake. The project involves a cluster of previous GCRF-funded research programmes, including the Leeds-led AFRICAP project.

Principal Investigator Dr Steve Sait, from Leeds’ School of Biology, said: “The push-pull method of pest control is decades old and is used successfully by thousands of smallholder farmers across Africa.

“We hope that this collaboration, and this new app, can help us extend knowledge of this technique to potentially millions of other farmers who could be benefitting from it. Compared to chemical pesticides, push-pull costs less money to support farmers, results in less damage to their crops, and it avoids harming other insect species that play valuable roles in the ecosystem.

“We consulted widely with farmers in Kenya and I’m excited to see how their contribution has made the app user friendly and could lead to more uptake of push-pull farming.”

Research by the scientists behind the push-pull technique has proven that odours released by the companion plants can effectively repel fall armyworm and protect crops against the pest.

Early adopter farmers have had great success with the technique, reporting five times less fall armyworm damage and a doubling or even tripling of crop yield, showing the huge potential this has for farmers and crop-producing smallholders. It also reduces the environmental impact of farming by protecting against pests without using pesticides, as well as improving soil quality without inorganic fertilisers.

Improving food security

The Push-Pull app, which has launched today, has been developed by Agape Innovations and is available on Android phones. It has been designed to work on the basic smartphones that are being increasingly used by smallholder farmers in Africa. It gives farmers information they need to get started with push-pull farming, and is not only free but will work offline, meaning a lack of internet connection in rural regions will not affect its function.

The ultimate goal is to provide a resource for support farmers that is informed by science, protects their crops and improves their harvest, which they can access any time of day from anywhere in the world.

Paul Mugisha, CEO of Agape Innovations Ltd, said: “With the world going digital and uncertainties like Covid-19 amplifying the challenges of physical interactions, ICT is so vital in today and tomorrow’s agriculture.

“At Agape, we built the Push-Pull app as a global tool to equip a farmer with all that is needed for a successful push-pull garden. Embedded with audio, visual and graphical expressions we are certain that the Push-Pull app will be relevant to maize and sorghum farmers worldwide for both today and tomorrow in controlling fall armyworm, striga and maize stalk borer.”

Professor Toby Bruce, from Keele University’s School of Life Sciences, said: “We are excited to see if this app can serve as a vehicle for taking practical information to the farmer. It is designed to share key details about how to get started with push-pull. We hope this will increase the number of farmers taking up this innovative approach that provides real benefits by improving crop protection and food security.”

Arsalan Ahmad

Arsalan Ahmad is a Research Engineer working on 2-D Materials, graduated from the Institute of Advanced Materials, Bahaudin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arsalanahmad-materialsresearchengr/

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Tanzania: Training agro-dealers, farmers and extension officers on vegetable production and pest and disease management

Posted in Crop protection, IPM, Pest diagnostics, Technology transfer on August 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Digital Engagement and Training Helps Increase Agro-Dealer and Farmer Knowledge on Integrated Pest Management in East Africa

Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab

Aug 19, 2021

This post is written by Sara Hendery, communications coordinator for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Integrated Pest Management.

Currently, the Real IPM database hosts over 7,000 participants and has collected over 200 infected crop images.

For more information on IPM training or Real IPM products, contact saraeh91@vt.edu.FILED UNDER:AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY EDUCATION AND EXTENSION

Africa: An app to help African farmers manage crop pests

Posted in Push-pull technology, Technology transfer on August 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

University of Leeds

An app to help African farmers defeat crop pests

CategoryEnvironment newsDate11 August 2021

Two men look at a smartphone stood in a field with maize crops behind them on a sunny day

A mobile phone app – launched today by an international team of scientists – will support farmers across Africa to adopt environmentally friendly ways of protecting their crops from pests.

But a solution exists – ‘push-pull technology’ – and it avoids the need to use harmful and expensive chemical pesticides.

Push-pull technology is a scientific method of planting crops such as maize and sorghum alongside particular species of forage grasses and legumes, which repel pests and supress weeds.

A field of crops shows maize planted using the push-pull method, with other plants alongside it.

The push-pull method pictured in action. Credit AFRICAP

“We hope that this collaboration, and this new app, can help us extend knowledge of this technique to potentially millions of other farmers who could be benefitting from it. Compared to chemical pesticides, push-pull costs less money to the farmer, results in less damage to their crops, and it avoids harming other insect species that play valuable roles in the ecosystem.

“We consulted widely with farmers in Kenya and I’m excited to see how their contribution has made the app user friendly and could lead to more uptake of push-pull farming.”

Research by the scientists behind the push-pull technique has proven that odours released by the companion plants can effectively repel fall armyworm and protect crops against the pest.

Improving food security

The ultimate goal is to provide a resource for farmers that is informed by science, protects their crops and improves their harvest, which they can access any time of day from anywhere in the world.

Further information

Image credit: Agape Innovations Ltd

For media interviews please contact Simon Moore, press officer at the University of Leeds, on s.i.moore@leeds.ac.uk

The Push-Pull app can be downloaded on the Google Play website

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Plantwise Knowledge Bank

Posted in Crop protection, Pests, Plant Pathogens, Technology transfer on August 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

What is the

The Plantwise Knowledge Bank is a free online resource that gathers plant health information from across the world. Over 15,000 pieces of content, which include, pest management decision guide’s (PMDG), factsheets for farmers (PFFF), species pages, photosheets, manuals and video factsheets in over 100 languages.

Plantwise Knowledge Bank Homepage — Plantwise Knowledge Bank website home page © CABI

It also provides the user with really useful tools including the diagnostic tool, country resources, pest alerts, horizon tool, interactive maps and booklet builder.

It’s modern and dynamic design makes it easy to use. The site is also mobile responsive which enables our smartphone users in Plantwise countries to access the site with ease.

The Plantwise knowledge bank links all actors in the plant health system – plant clinics, researchers, extension workers, farmers and government bodies – to the information they need for timely action against crop pests and diseases. It supports the Plantwise goal: lose less, feed more by collecting, analyzing and disseminating pest data in order to enable:

– Identification and management of plant pests

– Protection against pest and disease threats

– Secure storage and analysis of national plant pest data

Search content

The content can be searched using the search box that appears on the homepage. You can use the free text search to search for a pest problem or crop by common or scientific name. You can then filter by country, region, category or language. Additional search support can be found here, along with details on how to use the Boolean operators.

Diagnostic tool

The diagnostic tool allows you to diagnose a crop problem through the symptoms observed and the part of the plant affected. Results from the diagnostic search are given as a list of possible pests or diseases, each with an image, and a technical factsheet further describing the problem.

Country resources

The country resources give dynamic location specific information including crop variety list, guidelines, diagnostic field guides, pesticide red lists and country specific plant health websites. It will soon also contain links to country-specific factsheets. It allows users to get a range of information that refers specifically to their chosen country.

Pest alerts

Pest alerts deliver information about new pests straight to your inbox. You can sign up to receive email alerts containing recent literature reports for a specific country or region, or recent literature reports from around the globe.

Horizon Scanning Tool

The Horizon Scanning Tool, developed under CABI’s Action on Invasives programme, helps you identify and categorize species that might enter your country. Using data from CABI Compendia datasheets, the tool evaluates whether there is a potential threat of an invasive species, based on countries with similar climates, trade connections or major transport links to the source country.

Booklet builder

Some factsheets can be added to a booklet, using the booklet builder, and are denoted by . Click on the open book symbol to add a factsheet to the booklet. The booklet builder helps you to build a PDF booklet containing factsheets of your choice. Further details can be found here.

Interactive Map

Mapping plant pests and diseases is critical to plant protection decision-making. The knowledge bank allows users to plot multiple species of crops and pests to track spread. With climate overlays, predictive scenarios can be added.

Produced by the International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS). To join IAPPS and receive the Crop Protection journal online go to: www.plantprotection.org

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