Plantwise Strategy 2015-2020 LOSE LESS, FEED MORE Cambria Finegold, CABI Finegold, Cambria www.plantwise.org Plantwise is a global programme, led by CABI, to increase food security and improve rural livelihoods by reducing crop losses Janny Vos, CABI LOSE LESS, FEED MORE www.plantwise.org contents Executive summary ...........................................................................................................................3 1. The scale of the problem and the need for information ................................................................5 2. The Plantwise vision: lose less, feed more ...................................................................................7 3. Why CABI and its partners ......................................................................................................... 11 4. Delivering the Plantwise vision through improved plant health ..................................................12 5. What has been achieved so far ..................................................................................................18 6. Lessons learned ..........................................................................................................................22 7. Sustainability of Plantwise ...........................................................................................................28 8. Next steps ...................................................................................................................................34 9. Resource requirements and donor support ...............................................................................40 10. Governance ...............................................................................................................................43 2015-2020 milestones .....................................................................................................................48 January 2015 1 Julien Lamontagne-Godwin,Julien CABI 2 Executive summary Since 2011, Plantwise has grown rapidly to work in 33 countries by the end of 2014 and has met with strong support from its 168 partners, including governments, advisory services, NGOs, farmers, other plant health stakeholders. High demand from farmers, and interest from extension providers and plant protection organisations, has led to the training of over 3,500 plant doctors and the speedy expansion of plant clinic networks in the participating countries. It is estimated that approximately 1,900,000 farmers around the world had been reached directly through 1,413 plant clinics and other Plantwise activities by the end of 2014. More than 75,000 plant clinic data entries from 20 countries have been stored in the knowledge bank and used as the basis for informed decision-making by plant health stakeholders. In addition, the knowledge bank provides critical information such as pest distribution maps, an online diagnostic tool and crop management support through more than 7,500 factsheets on over 2,500 plant pests and other problems. Human resources, structures and processes, including the Plantwise Online Management System, have been put in place to enhance capacity for regular monitoring and evaluation across the programme. While CABI has demonstrated serious commitment to gender, more needs to be done to embed this in field operations to ensure that more women are able to access advisory services. The first large-scale, multi-year impact assessment of Plantwise is underway in Kenya in collaboration with international expert institutions. Overall, CABI and its partners are making good progress on the path to Plantwise sustainability in many of the participating countries; however, the process is taking longer than originally anticipated and CABI can still do better to reach all of its programme targets. The programme is, in general, at a point of consolidation. This means that Plantwise is successfully moving towards the end of the pilot phase in many countries and to a point where its focus changes from ‘proof of concept’ to local commitment and ownership by partner organisations. With increasingly strong signs of financial and policy commitment by partners to embed Plantwise concepts into their standard operating procedures, there is a significant opportunity to take the programme even further than originally anticipated. The Plantwise Strategy is a ‘living document’, guided by CABI governance bodies, donors and other experts, as well as Plantwise policies. This version of the Plantwise Strategy is an update from the 2011 version, using lessons learned during the first four years of implementation and feedback from the Plantwise Donor Forum and the SDC- and EuropeAid-led external evaluations in 2013 and 2014, respectively. All results presented in the current strategy are based on achievements made by the end of 2014. In driving Plantwise forward, CABI will continue to implement its dynamic and first truly global one- CABI programme through strong partnership with international and national organisations. An important focus going forward will be to ensure the sustainability of the Plantwise approach. A roadmap consisting of five programme phases was developed, using examples and experiences from the countries where Plantwise already works, to identify milestones for each indicator that demonstrate change towards sustainability and impact in terms of improved food security and livelihoods. Additional support, from a combination of existing and new donors, is required to build on programme successes and to further scale up Plantwise until 2020. The momentum of the programme and the interest and demand it is generating should enable it to reach the new fund-raising target (USD 100 m, of which USD 56 m is already secured). This increase from the initial target reflects not only the recent successes of the programme but also the appreciation by donors that the Plantwise approach is strengthening support services for farmers in a variety of ways: networks of plant clinics are directly helping farmers, national plant health systems are growing stronger and building functioning links among stakeholders, and countries are applying global knowledge bank resources to improve national vigilance against plant health problems, particularly pests. The main areas for investment in the next programme phase include: 1. consolidation of national plant clinic networks with strengthened support from diagnostic services and improved linkages to agro-input manufacturers and agro-input dealers 2. implementation of rigorous impact assessments in 2-3 selected countries 3. ensuring that all programme activities are underpinned by monitoring and evaluation processes 4. enabling CABI staff at programme and country level to fulfil the advocacy and capacity building requirements for facilitating institutional change 5. development of ICT-based tools to achieve more efficient collection and analysis of data and wider dissemination of high quality agricultural information 6. development of products and services based on new business and content models allowing open access and fee-for-service resources to exist side-by-side, thereby generating income to eventually replace donor funding for maintenance of the knowledge bank services. Through the further implementation of the programme, Plantwise will contribute to CABI’s Vision 2020 and support meeting the Millennium Development Goals as well as the post-2015 UN development agenda. 3 Katherine Cameron, CABI Cameron, Katherine 4 1. The scale of the problem and the need for information Based on data from 2012-2014, approximately 805 million people around the world are estimated to be undernourished. Over half are smallholder farmers and their families, who rely on their crops for food and income. Major crops and commodities that are important for food security, income generation and world trade suffer from frequent and severe production constraints due to poor management of agro- ecosystems, which is often the result of limited knowledge on best practice. The problem is aggravated by agricultural intensification and climate change, both of which create challenges that farmers have never faced before, such as degraded soils and unpredictable rainfall. Moreover, intensification and climate change, along with globalisation of trade and travel, are making the problem worse by accelerating the spread of invasive plant pests and increasing the overall impact on crops. Pests are defined as “any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal or pathogenic agent injurious to plants or plant products”1. On average, 30-40% of crops worldwide are lost before they can be consumed2. If the world is to meet the Millennium Development Goals as well as the post-2015 UN development agenda (Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture), then we must act to address this problem. The challenge of getting useful information to farmers In today’s world, we may believe that information is more widely available than ever before, yet agricultural advisory services in developing countries are still weak and there is a fundamentally inconsistent dialogue between farmers and those who are tasked with helping them. Many farmers do not have reliable access to advisory services due to their own restricted mobility. Similarly, the extension workers (official advisory service and support providers) are often too few in number and do not have the budget needed to travel to individual farm sites. Although there continues