July 2012: The Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International (CABI) has launched the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, a web-based portal that combines plant health information with diagnostic tools, fact sheets and other information resources to assist farmers in identifying and controlling crop pests.

The knowledge bank aims to provide extension workers, government organizations, researchers and farmers in developing countries with information to diagnose, treat and prevent plant pests and diseases, in order to reduce threats to food security. The website includes: a diagnostic tool that allows users to identify plant problems based on pictures of symptoms; country-specific pages that provide localized information; and factsheets that describe easily applicable treatments.

The knowledge bank complements CABI’s Plantwise network of plant clinics in developing countries, which provide support to local farmers to overcome plant health problems. [CABI Press Release] [Plantwise Knowledge Bank] [Plantwise Homepage]