Blogs

PlantVillage Launches Borehole Drilling Project in Garashi

PlantVillage Launches Borehole Drilling Project in Garashi

Written by Emmy Neema

PlantVillage recently launched the borehole drilling process in Garashi, Magarini sub-county. The project is set to benefit 30 households through contract farming, to increase crop productivity, ensure water security, and enhance agroforestry.

The project is set to assist members of Nuru Community Irrigation Group CBO in producing high-value crops in three cropping seasons per year.

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Farmers in Baringo County Trained on the Production and Benefits of Biochar

Farmers in Baringo County Trained on the Production and Benefits of Biochar

Written by Mercy Achieng

 The PlantVillage team in Kenya trained Farmers of the Salabani community in Marigat, Baringo South on the production and benefits of biochar to the soil. A training that aimed to ensure climate change mitigation through regeneration of land and enhancement of soil fertility and productivity. The locals appreciated biochar as a soil amender for holding soil nutrients, improvement of soil water retention, and plant ecology. Our field officers are working with the locals to turn the highly invasive weed, Mesquite (Prosopsis juliflora) into biochar.

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PlantVillage to Dig Soil Bunds as Part of Initiative to Reclaim Barren Land in the ASALs

PlantVillage to Dig Soil Bunds as Part of Initiative to Reclaim Barren Land in the ASALs

Written by David Hughes

PlantVillage has kicked off with digging soil bunds to regenerate waste land into agricultural use as part of a package of projects meant for communities living in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) region in Kenya.

The digging of soil bunds is one of a number of recently launched projects in the northern region of the country, with Isiolo, Marsabit, and Samburu acting as pilot counties.

Soil bunds are holes dug on sloped land to slow down rain runoff and give the soil the ability and time to absorb that water, thereby reducing soil degradation.

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PlantVillage Partners with MaDiPHS to Enhance Crop Pest and Disease Management

PlantVillage Partners with MaDiPHS to Enhance Crop Pest and Disease Management

Written by Emmy Neema

PlantVillage has partnered with the Malawi Plant Health Digital Service (MaDiPHS) to establish a digital plant health system aimed at predicting, identifying, monitoring, and managing pests and diseases.

The PlantVillage Nuru application has been selected as one of the monitoring tools used in the digital plant health system project, which will run for five years before it’s handed over to the Malawian government.

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PlantVillage Commissions Agricultural Transformation of Kenya’s Marsabit Drylands Through Irrigation Technology

PlantVillage Commissions Agricultural Transformation of Kenya’s Marsabit Drylands Through Irrigation Technology

Written by Mercy Achieng

The PlantVillage team in Kenya, has constructed the first-ever underground capillary wick irrigation system at the Ririma borehole in Marsabit County (Northern Kenya) for growing vegetables: cabbages, kale, curly kale, Swiss chard, capsicum, beetroot, and sweet potato vines.

The project comes as the drought situation in Kenya escalates, with communities in the Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL regions) experiencing the worst effects in years. We are now entering the 6th successive below normal rain season which has led to widescale stress in the community.

The vegetable project is a resilience revolution and a bold step towards regreening Marsabit and, in the process, combating drought and famine, contributing to the national goal of food security for its people, and empowering vulnerable families through income generation.

 

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Features
PlantVillage Advocates for Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality Through the Parasitoids Rearing Lab in Kenya

PlantVillage Advocates for Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality Through the Parasitoids Rearing Lab in Kenya

Written by Dennis Avokoywa.

Seven young female scientists at the PlantVillage Parasitoids Rearing Lab at Alupe in Busia
County, Kenya, are notable for their remarkable work that is changing the game for farmers in
10 counties in Kenya in combating the problem of fall armyworms.

As the world marks International Women’s Day under the theme "Innovation and Technology for
Gender Equality," the lab at Alupe, supported by USAID, stands out as a good case study of a
modern biological crop pest control technology that has provided equal opportunities to 11
young scientists to explore their potential.

The lab, whose idea is modeled after PlantVillage’s advocacy for youth empowerment,
integrates into the whole idea of championing the cause of eradicating global hunger through
technology.

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