Health clinics are not an exclusive preserve of humans but of plants too in south Indian state of Karnataka.
The State Department of Agriculture and Bio-Control Research Laboratories (BCRL) are running a string of 'plant clinics' across the state with an aim to keep endemic pests and diseases away from the state and empower local farmers to deal with them.
The plant clinics advise farmers on pests and diseases in the way a health centre does for humans. Farm experts are available at the centres to help farmers to identify plant diseases and to provide them technical support, sources said.
Plant clinics had been set up in the state on the model of similar clinics in Bangladesh and Bolivia which helped the farmers there to increase crop yields and spent less money on expensive pesticides, agricultural department sources said.
The agencies are now planning to train nearly 1000 farmers in the state as 'Plant Doctors' under the project with the support of CABI (Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International), an international not-for-profit organization.
The 'doctors' are chosen according to their farming family background, keen interest in agriculture and basic training on either IPM (integrated pest management) or a related subject.
By the end of March 2011, there will be enough trained Plant Health Workers to run 72 independent, community-based plant health clinics throughout the state, sources said.