Approximately 300 farmer-self help groups from Machakos County and its environs under the Katoloni community-based organisation have registered improved crop yields in the last one year due to high levels of sensitisation on crop pest and diseases at plant clinics in the region.
This is according to Margaret Kioko, a plant doctor at the community-based organisation, who said services offered at the clinics help farmers manage losses on crop yields due to pests.
Addressing journalists during a plant clinic at Kiima Kimwe on Thursday, content development assistant at the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (CABI) Willis Ochilo said it is estimated that up to 40% of food grown worldwide is lost to plant pests.
Ochilo said due to the problem, CABI, under the Plantwise initiative, trains extension workers as plant doctors on field diagnosis and recommendations for solving plant health problems.
He revealed that among those who have been trained as plant doctors in Machakos sub-county include five extension workers affiliated to Katoloni CBO, and the ones manning the clinic at Kiima Kimwe.
The expert said Plantwise is a global CABI-led initiative to improve food security by reducing crop losses due to plant health.
“In Kenya, the initiative is implemented by Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries with donor support from DFID and Europe Aid,” said Ochilo.
According to Ochilo, one of the ways to improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers is by managing the losses caused by pests in their farms.
He said Plantwise supports smallholder farmers with accessible, practical knowledge, so they can help themselves to lose less of what they grow and provide more food for their families.
The content development assistant said tablets had been donated to the plant doctors as part of a pilot study to try and understand how mobile technologies can improve the current plant clinic model.
He said benefits realised so far from the pilot include improvements in the quality and speed of data collection and processing.
Pius Ndaka, farmer from Iluvya village, said the plant clinics had made him enjoy lots of benefits from his farm.
"When I started growing kales, onions and tomatoes, I made losses because the crops were attacked by pests leading to low yields but when CABI brought the doctors a year ago, things have changed," said Ndaka.