Busitema University: The Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Sciences is located in a rural setting and offers an excellent practical learning environment for students from certificate level through diploma to degree level. The Department of Crop Production and Management is currently running only two study programs: a two-year Diploma program (Diploma in Crop Production) and a four-year Bachelor’s degree program in Agriculture (BSc. Agriculture). The diploma program has a course unit on crop protection that covers different aspects of basic knowledge on pests and diseases (identification, epidemiology of diseases, and management). The program is being reviewed, incorporating plant clinical and plant doctoral training as one of the hands-on trainings. The undergraduate degree program has a few course units such as Field Crop Diseases, Plant Pathology, Integrated Pest and Disease Management, Plant virology and bacteriology, and Plant Biotechnology. The program has completed its first cycle and has been reviewed though continuous review is expected even in the new cycle, thus providing an opportunity to incorporate modern approaches to equip the learners. The department is also in the process of developing two Master of Science Programs (MSc. Plant Breeding and MSc. Global Change and Sustainable Agriculture), a master’s program in Crop Science/Protection is also being initiated, thus providing an opportunity to also incorporate the modern approaches proposed in the VIRAL project. The department has one Associate Professor, four academic staff with PhDs, three academic staff finalising PhD program, five staff with MSc. degrees, and four technicians. However, only two of the senior staff are directly trained in the area of plant pathology, and one in entomology. The faculty also has a relatively strong outreach program to neighbouring communities and field attachments that provide opportunity for students to interact with farmers. Although the training of students at BU may be facilitated via this exchange at MAK, Uganda still requires support for making the courses under the programs at MAK and BU to enable practical training by purchasing the needed consumables for the DNA Sanger Sequencing platform already available at MAK, and acquisition of the field-based diagnostics using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) methods. The department currently relies mainly on field and basic laboratory diagnostic approaches, and advanced studies are conducted in Makerere University and/or other institutes at national and international levels. In order to successfully run the MSc programs that are being developed, there is a need to further train both the academic staff and technicians in the modern technologies for accurate and reliable diagnosis. Though some pedagogical training has been given to the staff, there is a need to refresh the skills of teaching by incorporating digital-based approaches to pedagogy. Since the students and staff interact often with farmers, there is a need to co-develop and acquire equipment and technologies, such as LAMP and RGB imaging that can simplify on-farm or on-site diagnosis of diseases and detection of pathogens causing them, together with farmers.