East African Integrated Pest Management work continues with pandemic precautions

Nov. 24, 2020
This participant came to the training without a face mask. To stop us from turning her away, she improvised by using a cloth commonly called “kanga.” Lesson learnt: As much as the local ministry of health is emphasizing face masks to contain COVID-19, they may not be affordable.
Despite having to scale back due to COVID-19 restrictions, The East African Vegetable Crop Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab (EAVCIPM-IL) continues to develop, implement, and scale-up IPM technologies for tomato, onion, African eggplant, cabbage, chilies, and beans. The overall goal of EAVCIPM-IL, now in its sixth year of funding, is to build the capacity of institutions in the host countries of Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, to implement effective IPM research and locally-adapted, gender-appropriate technology transfer programs that increase environmental benefits, farm productivity, and incomes, and to inform national and regional policy.  A training of trainers (ToT) approach is used to engage host site partners in the training of extension personnel and selected IPM village coordinators (VCs), using smart phone technology and internet-based resources, using participatory on-farm agriculture research.
Principal Investigator Luis Cañas, Associate Professor of Entomology at OSU Wooster and Interim Director of International Programs in Agriculture, works with OSU-based CO PIs: 
John Cardina, Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science,
Matthew Kleinhenz, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science,
Sally A. Miller, Department of Plant Pathology,
Cathy Rakowski, School of Environment and Natural Resources,
along with collaborators in Kenya and Tanzania, of course, and from The University of California—Davis and Virginia Tech.