Observations on Plant Health Clinic: Diversification for Strengthening Food Security
Journal Title: Current Investigations in Agriculture and Current Research - Year 2018, Vol 2, Issue 5
Abstract
Due to unabated rise in population, more so in Afro-Asian and Latin American countries food security has become a matter of concern. It is expected that global population may reach 10 billion and therefore globally all efforts are to be made to produce enough food to meet the growing requirement of the population. Unabated rise in population is also responsible for land-crunch, making the task a little difficult. In addition, changing climate and more importantly plant pests and diseases pose serious threat to food security. Plant diseases appear to be the biggest threat to food security. Several diseases in the past, such as late blight of potato in 1845 in Ireland, Coffee rust in Sri Lanka in 1876, Brown Leaf Spot of rice in 1942 in India caused untold miseries. The list is not complete; these are some of the examples. Worldwide plant pests are responsible for 40% losses in yield. To ensure sustained productivity from limited land, it is important to employ innovative technology for food production commensurate to meet the food requirement of ever growing population and modern know-how on plant health from plant health clinic (PHC), which plays a vital role in mitigating losses and assuring food security by timely providing diagnostic and rendering need based prescription. Plant clinics are in operation as walk-in -clinic (like Plant Health Camp) operating in market places, under Global Plant Clinic Programme (now Plantwise Initiative since 2010) across the world. Besides Plant clinics are also in operation at fixed location in their own building as in USA, Canada, and India. Plant clinics at permanent location have been developed modeled on human clinics, yet PHC have yet to receive public attention since their number is inadequate as compared to human clinics. However, National Horticulture Mission of Government of India has further accelerated the growth of PHC in a big way. Let others follow suit. The author in his Keynote Address in 10th International Congress of Plant Pathology in August 2013 in Beijing, China called upon various nations to create more Plant Clinic at subdivision level in the district providing easy access to growers to efficiently protect their crop frm onslaught of diseases and pests. Earlier in 1990 in China in a special lecture in an international Conference concluded, let the dawn of 20th Century witness the Plant Clinic as global phenomenon, but we have not to be complacent and go ahead diversifying. It was such a important task that he organized an Evening session on Plant Health Clinic at Turin, Italy during 9th ICPP involving world scientist.
Authors and Affiliations
MP Srivastava
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP570422
- DOI 10.32474/CIACR.2018.02.000147
- Views 64
- Downloads 0
Population Density of the White Bellied Rat, Rattus Rattus Frugivorus in El-Kawther City, Sohag Governorate, Egypt
he objective of the study is to study the population density of the white bellied rat Rattus rattus frugivorus at the Experimental Station of the Faculty of Agriculture, Sohag University in El-Kawther city, Sohag Governo...
Consumer’s Preference and Willingess to Pay for Organic Foods in Osogbo Southwest, Nigeria
Despite millions of smallholder vegetable farmers along the market chain of subsistence agriculture in most developing countries, consumption of organic vegetables in Nigeria has been reported to be significantly low. Co...
A Short Review of Fuel Consumption Rates of Whole Tree and Cut-To-Length Timber Harvesting Methods
The fuel consumption of equipment during forest harvesting operations is still not well known and existing measurement technologies are largely untested. Considering forest industry’s nee...
Onion (Allium Cepa) Production in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas: Financial Performance and Importance of This Activity for Market Gardeners in Southern Benin
Food safety has always been and continues to be a major concern for all countries of the world. This concern is all the more perennial in the developing countries like Benin with a low economic level and still rudimentar...
Fast Food Pork in North America
Try to remember the last time you bought a pork item at a fast food restaurant in North America. Not a ham sandwich from Subway or a breakfast sandwich from Tim Hortons but a pork burger from MacDonald's, Wendy's, A&W, o...