The Crop Pest Diagnosis course, based on CABI’s award-winning Plantwise programme, is available free for a two-week session to support those with limited access to learning due to the COVID19 pandemic. It has been designed to support teachers and trainers in agricultural education institutions and in the workplace.
To access the course, go to https://academy.cabi.org and create an account. This will generate an email. Confirm your email address by clicking on the link in the email and then find the Crop Pest Diagnosis course at: https://academy.cabi.org/enrol/index.php?id=25. Look for the Enrolment key box under the heading: Temporary open enrolment (two weeks’ free access), enter the key CoronaVirus and click Enrol me. You can then start working through the course.
Interactive exercises and resources aim to help users improve their ability to recognise symptoms and identify causes. Learners are taken from initial identification of symptoms to looking at the causes of those symptoms (both biotic and abiotic problems) and learners are also given a methodology for field-based crop pest diagnosis.
The course has five modules in total, covering Symptoms, Insects and Mites, Causes, Plant Nutrition and Diagnostics. Each module lasts about half an hour.
Students can then test their knowledge on crop pest diagnosis with the Diagnostic Simulator. This is a free interactive tool with realistic graphics, allowing learners to zoom in on symptoms, turn the plant around, cut it open and look inside.
Users are asked to name the symptoms (and are scored on their symptom recognition) and then to make a diagnosis (also scored on the quality of their diagnosis). The app is available for Android devices only, through the Google Play store.
For more information on CABI and CHAP’s network of Partners, go to Our Network.
If you have any questions about working with CHAP, please send us an email using the enquiries form at the bottom of our homepage.
