Bridging the Gaps in Plant Health Advisory Services through Community-Based Plant Clinics: Lessons and Prospects

Abstract

Increasing crop pests and diseases have become a global concern posing a serious
threat to food security. Farmers are in dire need o f timely, relevant and practical
advisory services that can help them mitigate such challenges. There are apparent
gaps and limitations in conventional extension services in delivering effective
advisory service on plant health problems. Realizing such shortfalls, many have
started advocating for a more responsive and demand-driven approach. Plant wise
community-based plant clinics (CBPC) are one such innovative and
complementary tool. Based on the results achieved in other countries, CBPCs were
piloted in Ethiopia in 2013. Today, over 100 CBPCs operate and provide advice on
plant health in Oromia, Tigray, Amhara and SNNP regions. The approach has
demonstrated having notable potential to effectively and timely reach out to
farmers with appropriate and practical advice on plant health problems. In Ethiopia
unique opportunities and fertile ground prevail to effectively implement, scale up,
institutionalize and sustain the initiative. These include presence o f regional Plant
Health Clinics, Farmer Training Centres, large number o f frontline extension staff,
decentralized structures, various agricultural development projects/programmes
and pro-agriculture development policy. This paper presents experiences and
lessons in implementing CBPCs in Ethiopia, the merits and contributions o f the
approach, prospects, challenges and future areas o f focus.