Blogs

While still in college, Sally Jemo's dream was to be the best agriculturalist there has ever been. Her mind converted every piece of land she came across into a productive machine.

She is now 24 and out of Moi University where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Extention With Education. She has already put her foot down and more than 100 farmers in Kimilili Sub-County, Bungoma County in Kenya look up to...Read more

Uganda’s coffee sector is made up of about 1.7 million small-scale household farmers. At least 2.8 million households depend on it for a living.

Of the total number of households involved in coffee growing, 1.17 million grow the Robusta variety, which faces the threat of pests and diseases.

One of the most common diseases of this variety is the Coffee Red Blister Disease (CRBD), commonly known in Central Uganda as "ekikaata" in...Read more

The northern part of Kenya is one of the places in Sub-Saharan Africa severely affected by the effects of climate change. Communities in this region solely depend on livestock as their source of livelihood, unlike other parts of the country that have the advantage of good soils and weather for growing crops.

PlantVillage, through its long-term initiative of helping not only farmers but also pastoralists deal with the effects of this...Read more

Mangroves are tropical plants that are adapted to wet soils, salt water, tidal fluctuation and soil type. It is said that mangroves can sequester four times more carbon than rainforests. PlantVillage through its agroforestry project, Carbon4Good, planted 1000 mangrove seedlings in partnership with Mtongani Kidundu self-help group in Kilifi County.

Mtongani Kidundu self-help group is a CBO that is committed to preserve and nurture mangrove trees along...Read more

Les producteurs de Takalédougou/ Banfora, au Burkina Faso ont reçu une formation sur le compostage. La particularité de cette formation était la valorisation des potentialités de la localité.  

Le compostage qui est un processus naturel de dégradation ou de décomposition de la matière organique  biodégradable comme les résidus de culture, les...Read more

PlantVillage, through its implementing partner organization Cultiva Dream Team, recently conducted two trainings; one for eastern region (Serere and Soroti district) and another for central region (Kalungu, Mpigi and Masaka). In attendance were the district agricultural officers, the district production officers and the sub county extension officers for each sub county in all districts.

The main objective was to provide an overview of PlantVillage...Read more

Agriculture industry has a lot of opportunities especially for young people. PlantVillage time and again have created job opportunities for youths in Africa, Asia and Central America to increase farmers resilience of food security in the face of climate change using technological innovations. PlantVillage created a youth driven model (Dream Team) that use graduates from different universities to work with and for the farmers. From Kenya, Burkina...Read more

Farmers from Bokoli CBO in Bungoma County, Kenya have something to smile about after their recent cassava harvest which was planted last year in early March. PlantVillage supported the group of 25 farmers with clean cuttings of MM96 variety. The cuttings were planted on a ¼ an acre piece of land belonging to one of the group members. The cassava farm was then used as a demonstration plot for other farmers to learn more about cassava agronomy...Read more

Coffee is one of Uganda's leading exporter after Gold. In Uganda, two coffee varieties is mainly grown namely Arabic coffee and Robusta coffee.

Averagely coffee in Uganda takes 2 to 3 years to start flowering and fruiting from planting time to the first harvest. The ripe healthy berries are picked, dried and further processed to end products like 'kawa'. According to farmers in Uganda, coffee growing is highly profitable and this has...Read more

Ces dix dernières années, les ravageurs des cultures constituent l’une des principales contraintes de la production au Burkina Faso. Pour contrôler ces ennemis de culture, la majorité des producteurs font recours aux pesticides chimiques de synthèse.

L’utilisation excessive et continue de ces produits, souvent non homologués, n’est pas sans effets néfastes sur la santé humaine et animale. Pour...Read more

L'agroforesterie apparait aujourd'hui comme un nouvel espoir pour les agriculteurs des pays en développement. Associer des arbres à la culture ouvre une voix vers la solution d'importants problèmes tel que la faible production agricole et la dégradation de l'environnement.

C'est ainsi que PlantVillage_FR apporte son soutien au producteurs du Burkina Faso à travers le volet agroforesterie.

PlantVillage recently conducted a 2-day refresher training in Mararal, Samburu County Kenya. 10 scouts comprising of 8 community disease reporters (CDRs) and 2 One Health Scouts participated in learning exercise and field work activities. In attendance, was Samburu County veterinary officers Dr. Peninah Lekaura, Dr. Amos Lekukuu and County surveillance officer Dr. Simon Kiambi.

Au Burkina Faso, le milieu agricole fait face à une hausse du prix des engrais minéraux ces dernières années. Pour s'adapter à cette situation, il est nécessaire de prendre conscience de la valeur importante que représente l'engrais biologique notamment le compost.

En effet l'usage du compost répond à la fois aux options écologiques de préservation de...Read more

PlantVillage's Dream Team is now making inroads into Southern Africa after introducing its activities in Mozambique. 

The unit has already selected 11 young graduates from universities in Mozambique with knowledge of agriculture to form a formidable team that will reach out to farmers in the country that is severely hit by the effects of climate change.

With the help of Kenyan experts Winnie Onyango and Lawrence Ombwayo, the new team received a 5-day...Read more

PlantVillage, in partnership with the Tanzania Development Trust and Mboni ya Vijana Organization, has expanded its activities to include young people from Tanzania as the organization gears up its initiative to reach out to smallholder farmers from marginalized areas in Africa.

The young men and women from the East African country, led by their coordinator, Benedicto Hosea, have already concluded the mandatory training required of a Dream Team...Read more

Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND) is a condition in maize caused by a combination of viruses: Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus (MCMV), Sugarcane Mosaic Virus (SCMV), Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus (MDMV) and Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV).

The pathogens of the diesease, which were first identified in the USA in 1976, are prevalent in many parts of Kenya and affect cereal crops.

The disease was first reported in Kenya in 2011 and later in...Read more

Amukura cassava aggregation center was established on April 4^th, 2021 to support over 2000 cassava farmers in building capacity. The center was formed to process and provide farmers with a readily available market for cassava tubers. It started with 535 farmers from 10 different farmer groups in Amukura East ward.  This comprised of 75% women and 25% men farmers.

“The idea to start an aggregation center came from an existing...Read more

Zai pits is also known as planting pits, planting basins, micro pits, or small water harvesting pits. They measure 20-30 cm in width, 10-20 cm deep, and spaced 60-80 cm apart. One zai pit can hold up to nine seed of maize depending on the size, afterwards they are filled with organic manure and dry plant biomass. This leads to increased microbial activities thus increasing the rate of infiltration during the rainy season.

Kilifi County is among the arid regions...Read more

PlantVillage has established the Dream Team model in Uganda in partnership with World Bank and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (Uganda). In an effort to curb food insecurity and climate change, PlantVillage has recruited 11 young graduates from different Universities in Uganda with an education background in Agriculture. This partnership will aid in development and piloting of pest and diseases surveillance tools for Uganda especially on crops...Read more

Grevillea robusta, a great tree species recommended for its ability to conserve the environment and fight climate change, is probably one of the most interesting of evergreen types. Mind you, PlantVillage is on the course of planting 3 million of them in counties across Kenya, and here are some of the facts that make this tree top-notch.

 Photo taken from one of the batches of Grevillea tree seedlinds PlantVillage has been...Read more