100,000 smallholder farmers to benefit from digital plant health service in Malawi

Original Story Published by: Russell Kondowe, www.malawi24.com
Photo Source: Courtesy of Malawi 24

The Malawi Digital Plant Health Service (MaDiPHS) project is set to benefit over 100,000 smallholder farmers through creation of a decision support system which will help farmers incorporate an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to fighting a range of crop pests and diseases. The project, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), will benefit farmers of maize, tomato, cassava, banana and groundnut crops.

MaDiPHS will build and expand on the successes achieved by existing digital plant health systems such as PlantVillage Nuru (a pest and disease monitoring tool), the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research’s VIPS pest prediction platform, a Farmer Interface Application (developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) and the CABI-led Plantwise programme and Pest Risk Information Service (PRISE).

CABI, an international not-for-profit organization that improves people’s lives by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment, is leading on the data organization and management of the project.