Every year, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from unacceptable levels of crop loss as a result of plant health problems, threatening their food security, income and livelihoods. This working paper shares lessons from Plantwise, an initiative to improve smallholder farmers’ access to plant health services in Uganda so that they can improve their yields, increase their incomes and improve their food security and livelihoods. The working paper presents lessons from almost ten years of experiences in implementing plant clinics in Uganda.
Agriculture is crucial for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), involving approximately 50% of the economically active population and contributing an estimated 25% to the gross national product. However, agricultural production has remained low due to soil degradation and pest damage in cabbage and maize (particularly due to lepidopteron pests), amongst other reasons. To help improve productivity and address food security issues, CABI has been working in DPRK since 2002 to introduce integrated pest management (IPM).
This book chapter focuses on dimensions of rural learning in Africa, with a special focus on rice farmers. Four key challenges in rural learning are addressed, namely social inclusion, scaling up, collecting farmer feedback and assessing impact. The potentially powerful role of videos in rural learning is illustrated. Experiences from Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) and partners are presented alongside other relevant experiences.