Blogs

PlantVillage has successfully distributed clean cassava cuttings in the month of April, 2021 to farmers in Kilifi, Bungoma and Busia counties. More than 96 bags of clean cuttings of different varieties have been given to new lead farmers and their groups to multiply. Upon harvest, the lead farmers are expected to share the cuttings with their group members.

This exercise has only been made possible as a result of collaborative...Read more

Mr. Nzaro plants cassava in 6 acres of his  farm. He is also a certified cassava seed enterprenuer in Mtepeni ward Kilifi county. He plants the Tajirika variety which does  very well in the coastal region. Nzaro is well conversent with cassava agronomic practices and earns about ksh 1,000,000 /USD 9,282 annually just from cassava. Now lets break this down and see how he gets such returns.

An acre plot carries about four...Read more

Using the links below,you can now access articles featuring PlantVillage efforts in the fight against the invasion of desert locust.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/science/locust-swarms-africa.html

https://generaldailynews.com/as-locusts-swarmed-east-africa-this-tech-helped-squash-them/

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/12/smart-technology-tackles-east-africa-s-locust-swarms/

...Read more

Access recent news and stories featuring PlantVillage Nuru using the external links below:

http://crowd2map.org/2021/02/14/plantnuru-app-training/

https://portlandpress.com/emergtoplifesci/article/doi/10.1042/ETLS20200300/228079/Plant-pest-surveillance-from-satellites-to

https://bigdata.cgiar.org/blog-post/success-story-from-cassava-farmers-in-busia-county-kenya/?fbclid=IwAR1FkfHBijyWJnfFEvD65EqpvywKZiYt7I1fz5e5cq44rdV4RQgtZGiD7BE

...Read more

Irrigation is a process of harvesting and applying water to the land to supplement inadequate rainfall and fulfill the water requirement of the crops throughout the crop period. There are different types of irrigation methods;

• Drip Irrigation
• Sprinkler Irrigation
• Manual irrigation
• Furrow Irrigation
• Flood Irrigation
• Basin irrigation

Kazungu Tambo,a farmer in Madunguni ward Kilifi County says that the rainfall patterns in the area have...Read more

Fall Armyworm(FAW) has become a major pest in Kenya, causing losses of about a third of the annual maize production, estimated at about 1 million tonnes. A field survey conducted in March 2017 and other current reports have confirmed presence of fall armyworm in the following counties: Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Kakamega, Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Kericho, Baringo, Nakuru and Busia. The pest is causing damage on off-season...Read more

The basic need for human survival; food, shelter and clothing are all dependent on agriculture for their production. Technology is present in all parts of our day to day lives. The main form of technology used by nearly 80% of world population is mobile technology. The number leads us to conclude that we have ability to use mobile technology to help farmers improve their agricultural production.

As the world is revolutionized, PlantVillage has harnessed the...Read more

Kilifi Agricultural Sector Development Support Program (ASDSP) in collaboration with Agricultural Training Center (ATC) Mtwapa conducted a Ward Agricultural Officers(WAOs) three day training on cassava good agricultural practices in Malindi Pearl Hotel from 1^st to 3^rd March 2021. PlantVillage had the privilege to attend and take part in training the WAOs about PlantVillage Nuru App.

Kilifi County government has put more effort in cassava production and...Read more

PlantVillage Nuru ni Nini?

• Nuru ni akili bandia katika utambuzi wa magonjwa na wadudu wanaoshambulia mazao.
• Nuru ina uwezo wa kutambua uwepo wa magonjwa kwa kuangalia dalili zinazoonekana katika majani.
• Programu ya Nuru ina uwezo wa kutambua magonjwa ya michirizi kahawia,batobato na athari za tanabui katika mihogo. Pia inaweza kutambua athari zinazoletwa na viwavi jeshi katika mahindi.

Faida za programu ya Nuru

• Ina uwezo wa kufanya uchunguzi na kutoa...Read more

Boniface Omollo is a recognized cassava seed entrepreneur from Sijowa Village in Samia Sub County in Busia County. He has worked with organizations such as REFSO Busia, KALRO Kakamega, IITA Kampala and PlantVillage Kenya in introducing improved and clean cassava varieties in Busia County. Over the years, there has been a challenge of accessing clean planting materials. As a result, farmers source cheap and diseased local cassava...Read more

2021 started with a bang here in Plantvillage with so many activities expected to take place this year .One of them is the expansion of the DreamTeam Kenya to other counties , which are Kilifi county and Bungoma county .

17 recent graduates from different universities across the country have joined the DreamTeam .They were welcomed with an intensive training in Busia County .The training was led by the senior DreamTeam members and Mr. wafula ,an Agricultural ...Read more

Francis Mwalungo Charo is a farmer from Ujam village in Adungosi in Busia County practicing sugarcane farming on his 2 acres piece of land. With the help of his family of three, he also plant other crops such as pawpaw, okra, eggplant, soya beans, cassava, arrowroots and maize both for subsistence and commercial use.

As an experienced farmer of sugarcane, this is what he does;

Planting material

Francis mainly uses Nigeria C0945 variety of cuttings. This variety...Read more

Adverse climate change has propelled farmers to build resilience .In Matavi Village, Samia Sub County, Busia County, we find the Muliro family - our very own climate activist.

The three brothers; Antony Pilly, Fredric Muliro and Augustine Muliro have taken actions to reduce the long term effect of climate change in their village. These are some of the actions taken;

Irrigation

Samia Sub County is characterized with high temperatures and unseasonable...Read more

Climate change has devastating effects to farmers in arid and semi-arid regions depending on rainfall for agricultural production.

To mitigate the water stress in agriculture, Tom Okinda from Mundika region in Busia County, has been practicing mulching.Tom started farming in 2007 after job retrenchment. Due to limited water, he started applying organic mulch on his crops and noticed how beneficial this practice was.

Mulching is the technique of...Read more

Each semester, PlantVillage at Pennsylvania State University, has a large following of undergraduates across all disciplines that work with us for credits. We want to honor their hard work and innovative abilities by sharing some of their stories. Please feel free to reach out to the PlantVillage team if you want to learn more! 

Julieann Patarini - Hi! My name is Julieann Patarini and I'm a senior studying Biology. I've had the opportunity to grow up in...Read more

Moses Odwali is a Seed entrepreneur and a very dedicated farmer from Teso South, Busia County. He owns ½ an acre piece of land in Asing'e village where he has established his homestead, a zero grazing unit and farming land where he grows cassava and fodder crops. Due to limited land, He has leased an acre in the neighborhood to grow maize and cassava for cuttings and tubers.

Moses has set aside ¼ of his land as a Cassava demo plot. He has planted MM...Read more

PlantVillage AI engineers Rohit Gangupantulu and Peter McCloskey, have successfully utilized open access resources on GitHub to design and develop an image annotation software. The LOST (Label Objects and Save Time) tool allows our experts (located globally) and undergraduates at Penn State annotate images in batches, online, all within the web browser. This erases the need for annotators to: 1) be in our lab facility  2) need extra resources (hardware/software)...Read more

Stephen Wedaba is a remarkable farmer with PlantVillage diversifying in Cassava, sweet potatoes and tomatoes in Nambomboto, Busia County. Wedaba makes a fortune from tomato farming in his ¾ acre field. Despite low rainfall in his region, he does hand watering to his tomatoes to ensure the plants get adequate water supply. From an interview with him, this is what you need to know about tomato farming.

Conditions for tomato growing

Tomatoes thrive in...Read more

SMALL CASSAVA FARM, BIG HARVEST

Helen Barasa is a cassava agripreneur from Kajoro village, Nambale in Busia County. She started cassava production in the year 2000 and has since diversified to other crops like maize, soya and sweet potato.

Across the years, organizations such as Ministry of Agriculture, ARDAP, SHA and PlantVillage have helped her shift from  Agriculture to Agribusiness.

Helen’s farm has fetched great interest from farmers and organizations...Read more

This month (August) marks a one year anniversary of PlantVillage Dream team in Kenya. 

The Dream team is composed of young graduates tasked with offering extension services, field mapping, knowledge sharing and training of small holder farmer on how to use mobile technology to improve farming.

Dream team started with 10 graduates in August, 2019 and has since expanded to 12 Dream Team members in Busia, Kenya and 52 locust team members in Northern...Read more