News 5

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Smartphone app helps farmers control potato and sweetpotato diseases

Pests and diseases destroy between 20 and 40% of crops globally, and farmers in developing countries are especially vulnerable to that destruction because they often aren’t sure what is affecting their crops. Or they lack good advice on how to control it. Lower yields and income loss often follows and contributes to hunger or malnutrition. 

Helping small-scale farmers detect and control crop pests and diseases can improve their harvests and incomes but given the diversity and intensity of pest and disease threats, this is no small task. Most sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations have a fraction of the extension agents they need to reach all their farmers, ranging from one agent per 1,000 farmers to one for every 5,000-10,000 farmers, depending on the country.  To help overcome this challenge, scientists are using digital technologies to bridge the extension gap, and the recent addition of potato and sweetpotato diseases to the PlantVillage Nuru diagnostic app are important milestones in an ongoing initiative to help African farmers produce more food with the help of mobile phones.

School children in Huancavelica excited by the story The Powerful Potatoes

A true celebration was experienced by schoolchildren from four rural communities in Huancavelica when they received the printed version of the children’s story “The Powerful potatoes”, a publication intended for the little ones to learn why iron-enriched potatoes should be consumed to prevent anemia.

“The Powerful potatoes” tells the story of a small town that overcame anemia thanks to the consumption of a potato rich in iron and other foods rich in this mineral.

So far, around 800 beautifully illustrated copies have been distributed in the primary schools of Ambato, Castillapata, Paltamachay and Tacsana, rural towns belonging to the district of Yauli, where they had previously worked with the farmers on the participatory selection of potato varieties suitable for biofortification.

Complying with the proper health protocols, the delivery was made at the end of last year, despite the difficult situation created by the pandemic and the reduction in face-to-face classes, which were held once a week, although with reduced capacity (50% of the student body).

Inclusive innovation in agricultural value chains: Lessons from the Participatory Market Chain Approach

Originally used in the Andes in the 2000s, PMCA triggered innovation processes in Peru that led to impressive product development and market sales for several native potato varieties that were largely unknown among consumers.

The virtue of PMCA is that it works directly with stakeholders to understand and learn the needs and challenges of all actors along a value chain, from farmers to sellers and from marketers to families.

Signing Ceremony of Founding Members to Establish Irish Potato Coalition in Ethiopia (IPC/E) as Local Organization

Signing Ceremony of Founding Members to Establish Irish Potato Coalition in Ethiopia (IPC/E) as Local Organization