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The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is leading an initiative on behalf of the three regional economic communities (RECs) namely ECOWAS, WAEMU and CILSS. The initiative is aimed at increasing the sustainable availability, accessibility and use of agri-inputs for crop production, livestock and aquaculture across the sub-region.

The initiative benefits from the support of technical and financial partners such as USAID, the World Bank, and AfDB together with some regional institutions and organizations among which are IFDC, FAO, Rural Hub, Africa Rice, and AGRA. The West and Central African Council for Research and Development (WECARD/ CORAF) was assigned the formulation of the strategy which was discussed during a 3-day workshop on February 06-08 in Abuja, Nigeria. CropLife AME participated in the workshop together with more than 40 other delegates representing the 3 RECs, the above-mentioned funding partners, technical institutions and AFSTA the seed trade association and ROPPA the apex producers’ organization.

The workshop discussed the draft strategy and made recommendations on the Logical Framework, the Strategic Plan and Operational Plan for 2021-2025 and the Implementing Coordination Unit.

A Task Force will be responsible for implementing the strategy of which CropLife AME will be a member together with the RECs, the member states, the technical and financial partners (USAID, WB and AfDB), regional institutions, and producers’ organizations. A workshop is planned for the first week of April in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, for the adoption of the strategy by the member states, with the participation of CropLife AME

The locust outbreak situation, and limited availability of registered control products, shows the need for simplifying the emergency registration procedures for pesticides, so that access to pesticides that can control such outbreaks faster and thus limit crop damage is ensured. On a general basis, many countries’ regulatory agencies require the following information for emergency registration of pesticides:

Furthermore, the active substance may have to have been approved in the country for other uses. With sporadic pest incidents such as the locust outbreaks being encountered, it’s not always possible for crop protection companies to fulfill the emergency registration requirements especially if there is no policy guidance, for reasons mentioned above. Consequently, authorities need to consider establishment of emergency registration policies and or procedures to enable need registration approvals during such invasions to enable minimization of yield losses to the growers.

Under the umbrella of “Illict Goods and Global Health”, INTERPOL undertook AFYA II – Preoperational Meeting – Operation against illicit goods and pharmaceutical crime in Harare, Zimbabwe on February 26 – 27.

The trade in illicit products represents a major challenge for the international law enforcement community and a huge risk to global public health. The term “trafficking of illicit products” encompasses practices such as falsification, counterfeiting, piracy, adulteration of products, smuggling and tax evasion. The types of goods affected are many and include pesticides.

CropLife Africa Middle East was invited to deliver a presentation on the impact of counterfeit pesticides which was given by Evelyn Lusenaka and by all accounts was highly appreciated.

The workshop attracted approximately 45 delegates from mainly 10 Southern Africa countries. The AFYA II operation will kick-off shortly with a coordinated press conference in mid-June and the final report issued in October.

The desert locust (Schistocerca gregarial) is one of most problematic pests in the agricultural sector, with a vast number of crop damage that has been recorded recently. The pest presents an important threat to farmers’ income, food security and livelihoods as it continues to spread across countries. Showler (2008) mentioned that they can eat approximately an equivalent of their body mass mostly on green vegetation per day. The pest consumes a variety of crops including millet, rice, maize, sorghum, sugarcane, barley, cotton, date palm, vegetables, bananas and pines (Showler, 2008). FAO has started with preventative and control programmes for the control of the current outbreak of desert locust in The Horn of Africa and parts of the Persian Gulf. This pest has caused a devastating plague to humanity, especially in Africa in the past. The first organized outbreak control started as a campaign in the second half of 19th century across Algeria (Buj Buj, 1995). However, there are still limited pesticides registered to combat this pest. The following countries in Africa and the Middle East (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Persian Gulf, Uganda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen) are still battling to control the pest as conditions are more favorable for their breeding due to climate change (FAO, 2020).

In addition, a different species of locusts called the brown locust (Locustana pardalina) has recently been reported in Namibia, Botswana and De Aar area, part of Karoo region (Roger, 2020). This species, as any other locust species fly distances with the wind and is reportedly originates from DRC

Monitoring and scouting of crops regularly is critical for early detection of the devastating pests. Earlier detection and application of appropriate pesticide can assist in minimizing crop losses. Farmers are encouraged to be vigilant and report any outbreaks to local agricultural agencies or Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) within the FAO. The most effective control is having a correct integrated pest program (IPM) which combines manual control, use of biopesticides, and chemical pesticides as appropriate. Locust outbreaks are sporadic in nature, can breed fast, and multiply up to 20-fold from one generation to the next (Allsopp et al., 1990) in favourable conditions and thus make it difficult to conduct local bio-efficacy studies.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the results of its regulatory review of glyphosate in January 2020 after receiving and considering public comments. In their interim decision, EPA continues to find that there are no risks of concern to human health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label. According to the Interim Registration Review Decision, the agency has thoroughly evaluated the potential human health risk associated with exposure to glyphosate and concluded that there are no risks to human health from the currently registered uses of glyphosate and that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.

Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide that controls broadleaf weeds and grasses and was first registered in 1974. EPA scientists conducted an independent evaluation of available data for glyphosate and found:

No indication that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor. Glyphosate has undergone Tier I screening under EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program and based on all available information, EPA concluded that existing data do not indicate that glyphosate has the potential to interact with the estrogen, androgen or thyroid signalling pathways.

From 1996 to 2018, herbicide tolerant (HT) crops, such as glyphosate and glufosinate tolerant crops, occupied the largest planting area of biotech crops. In 2018 alone, HT crops occupied 87.5 million hectares or 45% of the total 191.7 million hectares of biotech crops planted globally.