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\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019t 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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"yoast_head":"\n