By Bakary Touray Jr.
The African Union-Inter-African Phytosanitary Council (AU-IAPSC), an agency situated in Yaounde Cameroon, is currently engaging the continental Union’s Members states on a three-day continental workshop in Banjul.
The first component of the workshop is premised on components, capacity building of AU members states on Integrated Pest Management strategies and its implementation for Sustainable Agriculture.
The second component is centered on enhancing advocacy, awareness and communication, to ensure availability of sufficient safe biological control agents.
Director of AU-IAPSC, Dr. Jean Gerard Mezui M`ella, informed the gathering that the regional interface aims at building the capacity of AU Member States on Integrated Pest Management Strategies and Implementation of IPM for Sustainable Agriculture, with the aim of addressing crop productivity, to ensure food security across the African continent.
Dr. Mezui M`ella noted that the program was adopted by the African Union Commission and is being implemented under the African Union Inter-African Phytosanitary Council (AU-IAPSC) 2019 program budget.
According to him, currently, the annual loss due to pests before and after harvest is estimated at about 35 to 40 percent. That Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as one of the tools has come up as a way of reducing damages caused by pests without harming the environment.
He pointed out that, in line with the need to address this challenge, the AU-IAPSC, within the framework of implementing its 2019 program budget, is strengthening the capacity of Member States on IPM strategies and implementation of sustainable agriculture.
The mission of the AU-IAPSC, as the Director alluded to, is to protect continental cultivated and wild plant resources from pests, and to also facilitate trade.
The Deputy Director General, Department of Agriculture, Sariang M.K Jobarteh reiterated their support to the National Plant Protection Organizations in developing a regulatory framework and an IPM program.
Jobarteh again: “I would like to call on other donor agencies and organization to strengthen the capacity of the different Plant Protection Organizations of AU Member States, in developing and implementing IPM and biological control for sustainable agriculture.”
