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News and field activities

Launches, publications, workshops and trainings from the PPeDMaS project in Burkina Faso.

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18 July 2024

PPeDMaS digital tools launched to the public

WASCAL, the Ministry of Agriculture and Afrique Geosciences presented the digital tools developed under the AGriDI initiative: a pest and disease database, the PlanteSaine mobile app, the web-based Early Warning System and informative brochures for tomato, onion and maize.

The launch was held in a hybrid format. More than 100 people took part, 62 in person and about 40 online, among them universities, banks, insurance companies, agrochemical dealers, development organisations, national research institutions and regional climate institutions, as well as AGriDI and OACPS representatives. Participants watched detailed demonstrations of PlanteSaine and the Early Warning System and took part in question and answer sessions.

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5 September 2024

TOM2024 dataset released on Mendeley Data

The project published its collection of tomato, onion and maize images on Mendeley Data as TOM2024, for researchers building pest and disease recognition models. A data article describing the dataset followed in Data in Brief.

See the data
2024 and 2025

Four scientific papers published

Peer-reviewed papers from the project cover the PlanteSaine app, the TOM2024 dataset, the pilot Early Warning System and farmers' experience of fall armyworm.

Read the papers
Events & Activities

Workshops, trainings and field work

How the project built skills and shared its tools, from the start of the work in 2022.

  1. Early in the project

    Inception workshop, Ouagadougou

    The project was introduced to stakeholders at the WASCAL Competence Centre. More than 50 people took part: representatives of WASCAL, the Ministry of Agriculture and Afrique Geosciences, the AGriDI coordinator, regional directors from the three project regions, farmers, and scientists and students from the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo and IPD-AOS.

    “Pests and diseases constitute a major challenge and threat to the agricultural sector in Africa.”Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi, Director of Research, WASCAL Competence Centre, at the time
  2. 11 to 16 May 2022

    Drone piloting and image-processing training

    Thirteen people were trained, 10 men and 3 women: ten master's students and three technicians of the Ministry of Agriculture. Six of the students then helped collect project data, and were co-supervised for their master's theses.

  3. 12 July 2022 and 22 February 2023

    Training extension officers in mobile data collection

    Fifteen extension officers were trained in each session to photograph and record pests and diseases on their phones, ahead of the 2022 rainy-season and 2023 dry-season campaigns.

  4. 10 August 2023

    First PlanteSaine training for extension officers

    Extension officers learned to use the app so they could help test and validate it in the field. Their feedback shaped the improved versions that followed.

  5. 16 July and 1 August 2024

    Community training workshops

    Extension officers and farmers learned to install PlanteSaine on their phones, saw its features demonstrated and practised on nearby farms. The workshops took place in Zinare (Plateau-Central) on 16 July, and in Koudougou (Centre-Ouest) and Manga (Centre-Sud) on 1 August. In total 134 people took part, about 35 of them women.

  6. December 2025

    More drone pilots certified

    An additional 20 drone pilots were certified, building on the 13 trained in 2022.

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