Fighting the desert locust through emergency communication campaigns
The desert locust remains a key threat to food security across Eastern Africa unless mitigation measures are put in place to track and combat them. As part of an emergency response to the risk posed by this pest, CABI and partners joined efforts to develop actionable farmer-friendly desert locust content…
Improving soybean production in Kenya using digital and extension approaches
In Kenya, soybean is a key crop in helping to improve livelihoods and nutrition. However, production only meets 10% of the market needs due to the effects of poor agricultural practices and pests and diseases. To address these issues, this project will provide a frontier system that integrates Earth Observation…
New SciDev.Net Plus service offers members exclusive benefits
SciDev.Net â the worldâs leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development â is launching a new service offering members a range of exclusive benefits. Subscribers to SciDev.Net Plus will receive exclusive access to a monthly conference call with SciDev.Netâs coordinators…
Control of fall armyworm in Eastern Africa
In Africa, the fall armyworm is a pest causing significant destruction and devastation to crops. It is estimated to cause 8-20 million tonnes of maize losses each year and due to little knowledge of the pest and ways of managing it, the impacts can be catastrophic. With partners, CABI developed an emergency response strategy that empowered local communities of six target countries to…
PRISE pays dividends with farmers in Kenya heeding vital pest risk advice
Sixty percent of farmers who took part in a pilot SMS service run by Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE) and Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) in Kenya have heeded vital pest risk advice to help protect their crops from devasting insects such as the Fall armyworm (FAW) which is already…
âSowing the seedsâ for food security: lessons learnt from mobile phone SMS campaign in Tanzania
Lessons have been learnt from a major mobile phone campaign aimed at helping farmers in Tanzania âsow the seedsâ for greater food security by planting more resilient maize and fighting crop pests including the Fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda stalk borer Papaipema nebris. CABI has reviewed the outcomes of an innovative ICT…