28 February2023, Africa: The CABI Academy – which brings together CABI’s expertise in crop health, agricultural advisory services and digital development – is now making free courses on crop pest diagnosis and management available in 29 countries.
Students, teachers and trainers in agricultural education institutions and the workplace can now access at no charge the online Crop Pest Diagnosis and Crop Pest Management learning programmes as part of the PlantwisePlus programme.
PlantwisePlus is a global programme working to increase incomes and grow safer and higher quality food through sustainable approaches to crop production. The programme strengthens national plant health systems from within, enabling countries to provide farmers with the knowledge they need to lose less and feed more.
Countries featured include
Countries featured in the offer from the CABI Academy include the UK, Afghanistan, Barbados, Iraq, Mozambique, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China and Peru. The courses are available in English, with Google Translated version available for Bangla, French, Kinyarwanda, Uzbek, Turkish, Spanish and Arabic.
Students on the courses will gain an understanding of the hands-on skills needed for field-based diagnosis of plant pests and diseases and ways to manage them. It is based on CABI’s established methodology for diagnosis, used by thousands of Plant Doctors all over the world.
Such crop pests include the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) which – according to CABI research published in CABI Agriculture and Bioscience – causes annual yield losses in Africa of around USD $9.4 billion.
Major crop diseases on the other hand include Maize lethal necrosis disease (MLND) which affects maize crops and their seeds and is threatening food and economic security in East and Central Africa.
Sharing knowledge further
Mark Berthelemy, CABI’s Digital Learning Manager, said, “The CABI Academy is delighted to be able to extend the reach of its two main online courses to more countries around the world – thereby helping to ensure greater global food security.
“The move aligns with the five major goals within CABI’s new Medium-Term Strategy 2023-2025 – particularly with regards to increasing the reach, application and impact of science in agriculture and the environment.
The benefits of taking the two courses include access to the materials online or by downloading via the platform’s mobile app, the ability to “dip-in” to the course and save progress and – after a certification assessment – gain a CABI Academy certificate.
The full list of open access countries is Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, Iraq, Jamaica, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.
