[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.22]this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:05.06]Crop disease continues to be a problem
[00:08.66]for farmers everywhere.
[00:10.55]The non-profit Center for Agriculture
[00:13.48]and Biosciences International says
[00:16.88]pests and diseases destroy up to
[00:19.70]40 percent of the food grown worldwide.
[00:23.44]The center based in Britain is trying to change that
[00:27.47]with a crop protection program,
[00:29.56]the program is called Plantwise.
[00:32.84]In the past three years,
[00:34.99]Plantwise has trained almost one thousand so-called
[00:39.12]plant doctors in 24 countries,
[00:42.42]one of those countries is Uganda.
[00:45.55]Recently, plant doctor Daniel Lyazi
[00:48.85]set up a table under a small tent,
[00:51.53]join market day in Mukono, the village
[00:54.82]is about 15 kilometers from Kampala, the capital.
[00:58.95]People brought samples of diseased plants to his clinic.
[01:03.73]One farmer brought cabbage covered in slime.
[01:07.87]Nothing can be done to save his cabbages this year,
[01:11.83]but Daniel Lyazi's advice may save the next season's crop.
[01:16.50]"So he's telling me there's a small caterpillar
[01:18.34]which eats [the cabbages] starting from the youngest leaf.
[01:21.34]He's told me that the whole garden has been attacked
[01:26.42]and affected by this caterpillar.
[01:29.05]So according to me, I know that it's a diamondback moth."
[01:32.89]The farmer has been using an insecticide
[01:35.92]but Mr Lyazi says the chemical is the wrong one.
[01:40.11]"It's tolerant - it doesn't kill the diamondback moth caterpillar.
[01:43.70]So I'm recommending him to use another insecticide called Fenkill,
[01:47.79]and in another planting season he should plant with onions.
[01:52.61]Onions can repel (the caterpillar) and he can get income."
[01:55.90]He advises the farmer to plant onions
[01:58.68]between the rows of cabbages
[02:00.43]as an additional measure of protection.
[02:03.56]The clinic lasts about three hours,
[02:07.05]in that time Daniel Lyazi advises about 20 farmers.
[02:11.77]The clinic takes place twice-a-month, it started last year.
[02:16.96]The Plantwise program says
[02:19.94]there are now about 90 of these clinics in Uganda,
[02:23.43]this year donors spent close to $300,000
[02:27.96]training plant doctors and expanding the system in the country.
[02:32.64]Joseph Mulema coordinates the Plantwise program in Uganda and Zambia.
[02:39.41]He argues that plant clinics are a far more effective way
[02:44.49]to get advice to farmers than the traditional model.
[02:48.07]In the traditional model, agricultural extension workers visit farms.
[02:53.70]"Plant clinics can help so many farmers in a very short time.
[03:00.78]In fact, more farmers are seen in a plant clinic session,
[03:04.76]if good mobilization is done,
[03:06.55]than actually an extension officer can look at in an entire month."
[03:10.14]Robert Karyeija is a crop protection officer for the government.
[03:14.57]He says training plant doctors has been very important,
[03:19.24]this is because even though
[03:21.59]there were thousands of agricultural extension workers,
[03:24.78]they just didn't know enough.
[03:27.22]"They were there.
[03:28.76]But the problem [was] they would be general agriculturalists
[03:33.70]who knew agronomy but didn't know much about pests and diseases."
[03:38.97]Since 2010, The Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International
[03:44.35]has set up Plantwise clinics in 12 African countries
[03:49.23]- nine of them in East Africa and three in West Africa.
[03:53.71]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English.