A comprehensive work plan for FY18 has been submitted for this project, with details of planned experiments, training events, and associated project activities. Our future direction will concentrate in these four areas:
- – Diagnosis. Labs at UC-Davis and MARI are using modern molecular methods to enhance our ability to detect and identify viruses. They are working with collaborators in Ethiopia on what appears to be Ethiopian pepper mottle virus. This work will support future efforts to map virus outbreaks, spread, and prediction. This will include completion and the characterization of the two new cucurbit potyvirus species from Tanzania, including development of diagnostic tools (PCR primers), sequence comparisons with other potyviruses, generation of infectious clones and host range determination. Training will continue to give attention to diagnosis.
- – IPM Technology development and scaling. Some early-stage laboratory work is being conducted to develop new technologies that have potential to replace synthetic pesticides for pest and disease management. Other technologies are – or soon will be – moved to the field for testing and verification. Some plant-based products being tested at SUA show promise against Tuta absoluta, for example, and some interesting toxin proteins from entomopathogenic nematodes are being isolated and identified in work at KALRO. The intention is to move these as far along as possible and to seek other sources of funding if they continue to show promise. We will continue to scale innovations based on established technologies, such as improved rootstocks for grafting, resistant varieties, insecticide-impregnated netting, neem-based products, and new isolates of Trichoderma and other biocontrol organisms. To move established IPM technologies out to farmers, we will continue to conduct participatory on-farm demonstrations in villages in Feed the Future areas all countries. These are combined with relevant training to educate farmers on IPM technologies as well as the use of the diagnostic network. The training and demonstrations will include participation of local agency personnel. We will expand healthy seedling production capabilities through business planning for current producers and adding additional seedling producers in each country to meet current demand for healthy seedlings.
- – IPM Communication. The East Africa IPM Plant Health Network using WhatsApp will be expanded to village farmer groups. We have already initiated this effort in Kenya through work with Real IPM in the villages that KALRO is focusing on. These will serve as models for other farmer groups. Our plan is to train representatives from these groups as trainers for other farmer groups and to establish linkages among groups that will be linked to the core diagnostic group. IPM communication will also be expanded by pushing out SMS messages to farmers regarding IPM technologies. As part of IPM communication, cooperators and their students plan to prepare manuscripts for publication, including four from Kenya and one from the USA in a special issue of the journal Crop Protection. We will continue to build the project web site at Real IPM and the one under construction at Ohio State (https://u.osu.edu/cardina.2/) .
- – IPM Training. In conjunction with the project’s annual meeting in Ethiopia in 2018, we will conduct a training event focusing on tomato and onion IPM packages, from seed selection and seedling production through to harvest and market. The goal will be to demonstrate all possible IPM technologies that can be used along the entire crop cycle. Locally-conducted training events in Kenya and Tanzania will focus on the connection between diagnosis and management – i.e. how to guide farmers in the choice of IPM technologies. This is a missing piece in adoption of appropriate IPM-based responses to pest, disease, weed, and nematode problems. These local trainings will be conducted in villages where participatory on-farm trials are conducted. At the advanced level, we will of course continue to support the PhD and MS students engaged in the project.