The story

Vegetable farmer Mohammad Rafiz Uddin Mollah, from Bangladesh, is just one of millions of smallholder farmers around the world losing less of what they grow thanks to the technological innovation being pioneered by CABI’s Plantwise programme.

Plantwise plant clinics deliver plant health knowledge to millions of smallholders. And now, newly rolled out e-plant clinics are providing even more timely expert advice on pest and disease management for healthier and more profitable crops.

The e-plant clinics are equipped with tablet computers which allow plant doctors to access the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, even offline, and communicate with other plant doctors to ensure that farmers get the best possible recommendations for their produce. Mohammad has benefitted from a 30 percent increase in production.

“When we see insect attacks in our fields, we send an SMS to the plant doctors. Because of the availability of the e-plant clinic we benefit. We can send them a message any time during the week and they will send us the diagnosis of the problem and how to treat it by SMS. We benefit from the advice about insect control and fungus control.” Mohammad Rafiz Uddin Mollah

 The tablets feature apps which generate prescriptions that are forwarded to farmers, and can be easily shared between farmers, extending the reach to many more than those who have interacted with a plant doctor directly. Messaging apps and social media enable plant doctors to communicate with each other and CABI’s Diagnostic Advisory Service.

Data collected from the e-plant clinic makes remote consultation possible and allows CABI to track the spread of pests across the plant clinic network in real time.

“Instead of waiting 100 days to hear what’s happening on the ground, we can now get that information in two days from tablet to the central repository” Claire Beverley, Head of Plantwise Knowledge Bank

 You can see the new CABI Plantwise video ‘Plantwise e-plant clinics’ here