The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research is offering Africa's first free, open-access, certificate-based online course for practitioners to get certified in integrated pest management and pesticide safety. Register for the course now.

Insect pests, weeds, and diseases are a common problem for farmers worldwide. The global estimated yield loss from pests ranges from 26-29% for soybean while other crops, such as potato, experience yield losses up to 40% (Oerke, 2006). In sub-Saharan Africa, pest control is often manual: smallholder farmers rely on hand hoe weeding or physical removal of insects, which is labor-intensive and often ineffective. Using additional pest management practices, including crop diversification, timely planting, and judicious use of pesticides is crucial for cost-effective pest control and is known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

SIL’s online IPM and Pesticide Safety Training Course is a free, self-paced course. The objective of the training course is to equip extension agents and other practitioners with the skills needed to successfully implement an IPM system. The course also aims to provide learners with a better understanding of safe pesticide application and storage. Throughout the course, students will be able to share their experiences via surveys, ask questions on the course discussion board, and test their knowledge with assessments at the end of each module. Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive a personalized certificate.

The course was developed by Nicole Lee, a graduate researcher for the Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Lee has a M.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Crop Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Lee has experience living and working in both sub-Saharan Africa and South America. The Soybean Innovation Lab intends to add more online courses soon in the areas of soybean agronomy, nutrition, and mechanization. We encourage you to check in at soybeaninnovationlab.getlearnworlds.com for new course offerings.

Access the Course!

Registration for SIL's IPM and Pesticide Safety Training Course is free! Sign up and register for this new online course now.