Plant clinic to fight crop disease

Pest and diseases of plant are major threats to food security and livelihoods, mostly in the developing countries of the world. Agricultural research is continuously going on to innovate new technologies to combat plant pest and diseases while extension services are relentlessly offering technical knowledge to farmers for bringing down the losses caused by pest and diseases. Even before crops can be harvested by the farmers, more than 40% value of plants for food is lost to pests and diseases.
Plant clinics offer advices to farmers on how to mitigate/control plant pest and diseases free of charge (on prescription). A plant clinic is being attended by plant doctor which is not an official title; this designation has been adopted by the UK-based Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience (CABI) for the 1,000 agricultural extension workers it has helped to train as part of its Plantwise programme. Since 2010, Plantwise has set up plant clinics in 24 countries which include Uganda, Zambia, and Bolivia.
I think plant clinic model of extension can also be replicated in Bangladesh by providing training to some extension workers on specific crop pests and diseases.
Professor M Zahidul Haque
Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System
SAU, Dhaka