Blogs

Fall armyworm is continuously threatening food security and the livelihood of hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that fall armyworm threatens maize crop worth USD 18 billion per year in Africa, near East and Asia-pacific. Using nature based solutions that is environmental friendly to manage this voracious pest is crucial.

In Kenya, PlantVillage dream team led by...Read more

We previously wrote about the use of natural enemies like parasitoid wasps that help farmers combat the terrible fall armyworm. This is work that we have been doing with the excellent team at icipe. You can see a video of the release we did with Dr Peter Malusi and Dr Tadele Tefera of icpie.

We had not expected to start releasing the parasitoid wasps since by the time we met up with Dr Malusi the maize had already grown to over knee height and had plenty of...Read more

PlantVillage operates in 3 Sub Counties in Kilifi; Kilifi South, Kilifi North and Malindi. PlantVillage interacts with farmer groups or individual farmers. For most groups, a lead farmer is identified and equipped with a smartphone and trained on the use of PlantVillage Nuru Application. They then scout their farms, those of their neighbours and other group for pests and diseases. They receive immediate diagnosis and advice on how to manage the pests or...Read more

A farmer planting cassava will never lack food in their farm regardless of the season. It is a drought resistant crop grown mostly in parts of Africa.

Do you know that cassava can be infected by diseases? Many farmers do not know of this and would blame low yields on high temperatures. Below are some of the pest and diseases causing low cassava yield:

Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD)

This is a viral disease thus has no cure. Signs and symptoms of CBSD are mostly...Read more

In the recent concluded virtual event, PlantVillage was privileged to participate as well as contribute to Mercy Corps AgriFin 5th Annual Learning Event. PlantVillage Founder and Professor in Pennsylvania State University, David Hughes together with CEO Annalyse Kehs were among speakers who delivered session on Moonshoot technology innovations tackling climate change with smallholder farmers.PlantVillage Nuru was...Read more

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