Created originally as a global resource for anyone interested in plant health, the Plantwise Knowledge Bank has become an essential tool for many professionals working each day to protect farmers against pests. This is an online and offline gateway to actionable plant health information and services – from pest diagnostic search tools to maps of pest locations and customized alerts on pest news about your area. It combines global and local open access data from leading experts working around the world in a dyanmic and easily searchable way, so answers can become actions.
Today, there are more than 10,000 factsheets produced by top global institutions and Plantwise partners available on the Knowledge Bank, free of charge. Factsheets are short, practical guides which can be taken offline into the field to identify a plant pest on-the-spot and find a safe and effective solution. Factsheets include Pest Management Decision Guides, which describe safe options for fighting pests and reduce harmful risks of pesticides. Users can search for these resources by crop, pest, country or region – and even by climate zone – to find the answer to a plant health problem.
After the plant clinic is done for the day and the plant doctor has gone home, the data they recorded in our plant clinic online data management system (POMS) keeps working. This secure national resource provides vital information collected at plant clinics, which policy-makers can use to better respond to emerging and re-emerging crop problems. Behind the scenes, each record from each farmer’s visit is analysed and reviewed to reveal a broad picture of the real challenges facing farmers in a country or region, and the quality of the recommendations given by plant doctors.
ICT innovations for plant doctors To access the Plantwise Knowledge Bank on your tablet, download the free Plantwise Factsheet Library app from Google Play.
Contact Plantwise If you would like to discuss how you can get involved with Plantwise today. Email: plantwise@cabi.org Phone: +44 (0)1491 832111