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Promising innovative extension approaches for climate-smart agriculture: The Plantwise example

Luca Heeb, Plantwise Programme Support Officer

GACSA Annual Forum 2016, CSA Speakers Corner, 16th June 2016, Rome

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●Complementarity of

• Plant Clinics

• Plant Health Rallies

• Mass Extension Campaigns

●Contribution to

• Food security

• Adaptation

• Mitigation

●Conclusions from

• 4 years of experience

• 34 developing countries

Outline


Plantwise is a global programme, led by CABI,

to increase food security and improve rural

livelihoods by reducing crop losses

What is Plantwise?


Video

PWKB animation_2016.mp4


Barbados

Bolivia

Brazil

Costa Rica

Grenada

Honduras

Jamaica

Nicaragua

Peru

Trinidad &

Tobago

Africa Burkina Faso

DR Congo

Ethiopia

Ghana

Kenya

Malawi

Mozambique

Rwanda

Sierra Leone

Tanzania

Uganda

Zambia

Asia Afghanistan

Bangladesh

Cambodia

China

India

Myanmar

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Vietnam

The Americas

Plantwise Countries in 2016


●Extension approaches/initiatives share

common goals

• Food security

• Increased livelihoods

• Sustainable use of resource

● Extension approaches have different

impact and reach potential

Complementarity of extension approaches


●Replicates the human health clinic

concept

●Provides diagnosis and recommendation

on any problem and any crop

●Staffed with 2 plant doctors from

government, private sector, public sector

●Records snapshot of problems on

farmers fields fed back to global

knowledge bank

Plant Clinic


●Open to everybody and held in public

space

●Run by local extension workers

● Inform about one single topic

●Are complementary to plant clinics

because:

• Uses ‘clinic data’ to identify topics of the

rallies

• Can quickly raise awareness about

major agricultural risk

Plant Health Rallies


●Deliver targeted messaged to thousands

/ millions of farmers

●Can be run by non-extension players

●Can make best use of modern technology

(ICT)

●Are complementary to plant clinics / rallies

because:

●Messaging is informed by problems

brought to clinics

●Campaigns use extension content

developed for clinics

Mass Extension Campaigns


●It is know that “climate change is altering

distribution, incidence, and intensity of

plant pest and (livestock) disease”

●Up to 40% of crops are lost to pest

diseases

●As consequence:

• Reduction of productivity and income

(food security)

• Reduction of the efficiency of farming

systems (mitigation)

• Reduction of resilience and increased

vulnerability (adaptation)

Contribution to Climate Smart Agriculture


●Food security:

●Reached 4.5 million farmers in 34 countries

●On-going 4 year impact assessment (mixed

method randomized control design)

●Demonstrated that:

Contribution to Climate Smart Agriculture (cont’d)

Farmers satisfied

with plant clinics

Farmers satisfied

with advice given

Farmers applied

the advice given

Farmers saw crop

yield increased after

plant clinic visit


●Mitigation

● Increased system efficiency by reducing

crop losses leads to better use of

available resources

●This contributes to climate change

mitigation by reducing direct emissions

and indirect emission



●Adaptation and resilience

●Created framework for in-country

surveillance through plant clinics

●Empowered countries to respond quickly

to emerging plant health problems

through linkages within extension system

●Decreased dependency of farmers on

inputs through IPM advice



● “Plantwise is highly relevant and has a

positive impact on farmers’ livelihoods”

(Africa External Evaluation 2014, Doorman & Ngo-Samnick)

● “Plantwise is cost-effective and is

gaining the kind of in-country financial

leverage that most development projects

can only dream of”

(Asia External Evaluation 2015, EvidenceOnDemand)

● “Preliminary evidence that Plantwise

training has a large and significant effect

on plant health knowledge”

(Impact Assessment Report Kenya, American Institute for Research)

Conclusion


● More effort needed to achieve strong in-

country buy-in and support at multiple

levels

● Measuring in-country impact requires a

mix of methods

● Data validation reveals weaknesses in

plant doctor performance; must now

strengthen feedback mechanisms

Lessons learned


Over 1700 clinics in 34 countries Over 5,000 plant doctors trained

4.5 Million farmers reached Nearly global usage of PWKB


Thank you

lose less, feed more


We wish to acknowledge the support of our donors,

as well as our national and international partners,

who make Plantwise possible

Thank you

Ministry of Agriculture,

People’s Republic of China

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