The story

The PlantwisePlus programme helps smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries produce more food using more sustainable practices, improving rural livelihoods. The programme continued to deliver impact in 2025.

PlantwisePlus strengthened global pest preparedness efforts by supporting the establishment of the first Plant Health Community on the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources Initiative (EIOS), creating a global network for identifying and responding to plant health threats. This complements the national and regional uptake of PlantwisePlus approaches, including pest risk registers and pest response plans. Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE) alerts sent to millions of farmers in Africa were shown to increase adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) approaches by 8-32%, improving crop yields and incomes by 18-26%.

The programme’s work on pesticide risk reduction supported Bangladesh, Kenya, and Uganda with the development of pesticide re-evaluation guidelines, resulting in science-based regulatory action. Over 26,000 stakeholders were trained in pesticide risk reduction approaches, and over 3.5 million farmers were reached through mass extension campaigns, with evidence of improved practices and increased uptake of IPM approaches, including biopesticides. Biocontrol initiatives show long-term impact and sustainability: in Kenya, farmers in areas where CABI and partners released the parasitic wasp against papaya mealybug are reporting over 50% increase in income, and in Pakistan, partners have committed funding for six new biocontrol rearing facilities.

Through expanded farmer advisory services, PlantwisePlus delivered IPM advice to over 32.3 million smallholder farmers, of whom 5.8 million were reached directly and 26.5 indirectly, with 38% of all stakeholders reached identifying as women. As a result of programme interventions, an estimated 1.8 million farmers had increased yields and 1.9 million benefited from increased incomes. The CABI digital tools and learning products saw 2.3 million engaged users in 2025, up from 1.3 million in 2024, showing growing use by extension officers and service providers. A study in India showed that digital tool users were 55% more likely to use biopesticides, while reporting a 23% increase in profit.

The programme also continued to make a strong scientific contribution in 2025, with 32 publications strengthening its evidence base, supporting improved plant health policy, advisory practice, and biosecurity decision-making.