CABI News

CABI has highlighted the importance of plant health within a One Health context at the 19th Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM) held at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy.

The CPM is the governing body of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). CABI through its projects and technical activities supports the IPPC’s mission to protecting global plant resources from the introduction and spread of plant pests, in order to preserve food security, biodiversity and facilitate trade.

The FAO states that In Africa, the estimated crop damage by pests ranges from 30-60 percent or USD $65.5 billion annually. By building resilience of their phytosanitary systems, countries can prevent the entry or spread of pests in their territories.

The importance of plant health within One Health

At this year’s CPM-19, CABI delivered a presentation during a side event entitled “Science Session: The Importance of Plant Health within One Health.”

Dr MaryLucy Oronje, CABI’s Senior Scientist, SPS, spoke about how One Health approaches to crop and livestock care in Kenya and Uganda evolved from the plant health clinic networks implemented under the CABI-led Plantwise programme 2011-2020 and ongoing PlantwisePlus programme, which have benefitted hundreds of farmers.

The plant clinics usually focused only on plant health. But in many countries, the clinic records collected in the Plantwise program showed that smallholders were asking questions both about sick plants and animals.

Through the collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), Makerere University, participating District Local Government and funding from Biovision Foundation, Welttierschutzstiftung WTS and CABI Development Fund, CABI piloted and scaled joint crop-livestock clinics helping farmers to address a broader range of health-related issues, including One Health issues such as mycotoxin, pesticide misuse and rabies.

Dr Oronje said the joint crop-livestock clinics are supporting small scale farmers and are a first step towards responding to the call for integrated action to address human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health and contributing to general surveillance of plant and animal pests and diseases. The Joint Crop-Livestock Clinics for One Health are also being piloted with the County Governments of Trans Nzoia, Baringo and Elgeyo Marakwet and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

CABI’s One Health products available on the CABI Digital Library

CABI scientists also spoke about CABI’s One Health products available on the CABI Digital Library. These include the CABI One Health Journal, with real life examples of One Health in practice in One Health Cases, including a case about the crop livestock clinics and the One Health Knowledge Bank.

Dr Oronje, who presented the importance of Plant health in One Health at the Science Session, said, “The demand for agricultural advice related to both crops and livestock is huge. Broadening the scope of plant clinics into Joint crop-livestock clinics can lead to improved quality and timeliness of crop, soil, livestock, and veterinary advisory services.

“This approach could also be of benefit regarding One Health issues such as pesticide risk reduction and mycotoxin contamination, which are not always evident from problems that are brought to the clinics. Such problems emerge in the plant health sector – but have a significant impact on human, livestock, and ecosystem health.”

Inspire collaborative, multi-sector agricultural advisory systems

She further added that outcomes from the crop-livestock clinic approach can inspire collaborative, multi-sector agricultural advisory systems that integrate plant and animal health, soil health and environment.

Christine Alokit who leads the joint clinic work in Uganda and Florence Chege in Kenya, are linking the work with One Health stakeholders and platforms within the countries.

Ms Alokit said, “The Joint crop-livestock clinics is a big asset to farmers given its reach to more farmers within a community/village at any one time and given that farmers receive more advise for both crop, animals and sometimes fisheries, and entomology services at one point. The rotational manner in which it is carried out in different villages increase access by more farmers.

“It has also broken communication barriers among staff from different departments and among farmers and different staff increasing access to more demand for advice and distribution of inputs from the government.

“Not only do farmers get animal health related advise but also receive advise on management and animal husbandry, shelter, management of one health cases such as pesticide misuse in crops, follow up visits are made for better support especially on animal health and plant health cases for the application of the given advice.”

Implementing the One Health Hub

CABI colleagues are currently implementing the One Health Hub, a project funded by UK International Development, that focuses on One Health learning and evidence synthesis. The One Health Hub will engage with stakeholders to identify research gaps and promote evidence-informed research and policy decision making in One Health.

The Juno Evidence Alliance will lead the One Health Hub’s work to synthesize evidence on One Health issues and will be working with the secretariat and communication teams to share and debate evidence widely.

An opinion piece, “Worlds apart: Plant health and One Health and a path to convergence,” lead by Dr Sol Danielsen working with Dr Urs Schaffner and Dr Jakob Zinstag, will be published shortly. Dr Danielsen and Dr Schaffner are One Health experts working with the One health hub team. Dr Danielsen worked closely with Christine Alokit and Florence Chege to support the joint crop-livestock clinic work in Uganda and Kenya.

Additional information

Main image: A joint crop livestock plant clinic in Uganda (Credit: CABI).

Relevant project page

‘Joint crop and livestock services for smallholder farmers.’

Relevant stories

‘Strengthening plant health within One Health: Stakeholders call for greater collaboration.’

‘Support for greater plant health highlighted at Commission of Phytosanitary Measures.’

‘Joint plant-livestock clinics reap One Health benefits for farmers in Kenya and Uganda.’

‘CABI adopts ‘One Health’ approach to integrated crop-livestock advisory services in Uganda.’

Video

See also the video ‘One Health Crops and Livestock on the CABI YouTube channel.