Easy-to-use test kits now help laboratory staff in developing countries to diagnose diseases rapidly. The traditional tests are expensive and time-consuming. This means that diseases, such as bacterial wilt in potato, groundnut and tomato, and leaf spot in banana, are often not correctly detected, or not detected in time. So, crop losses from these diseases in Africa and Asia are devastating. Now, laboratories in Mauritius, Malaysia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Trinidad use cost-effective kits to detect these diseases quickly and accurately. The design of the kits takes into account the often poor conditions in these laboratories. The tests have great potential for certifying crops for export and import, as well for meeting food safety standards. Many plant pathology laboratories around the world have already asked for them.