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CropLife Africa Middle East was a consortium partner with SNV Ethiopia (Netherlands development organization) in Phase (I) of the Horti-LIFE project which ended in June 2019. SNV decided on a Horti-LIFE Phase (II) which includes the full support of CropLife Ethiopia by setting up a Project Management Unit (PMU) within the CropLife Ethiopia national association. In August 2019, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the partnership agreement covering the support of SNV- Horti-LIFE and operational costs of the PMU for Spray Service Providers (SSPs) & Kebele Pesticide Agents (KPAs) was signed between the two parties in the presence of the CLAME team. The term of this agreement extends from August 2019 to June 2023,.

The MoU defines the roles and responsibilities of both parties and one of the core responsibilities of CropLife Ethiopia is to ensure that its member companies continue with the commitment to avail their staff for the training of 300 SSPs and 150 KPAs.

By closely working with the project team of SNV, training programs started to be rolled out as per the workplan, by trainers from CropLife Ethiopia and member companies in the project regions. In February 2020, four trainings were planned and executed in the Amhara region at two sites where a total of 55 SSPs/KPAs successfully graduated after an intensive four days training. SNV fully equipped the SSPs and KPAs with the required PPE, knapsack sprayers, record logbook and technical manual.

The SNV training will continue on 16 March 2020 in the Tigray region where 36 SSPs/KPAs will be trained. Coincidently, CropLife Ethiopia is also running an awareness creation exercise in 4 regions and 11 woredas under the USAID funded, Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activities (FTFE-VCA) project. Areas to be followed will be by the selection of SSPs, training, provision of equipment, monitoring and evaluation activities. CropLife Ethiopia is the project subcontractor whereby an additional 165 SSPs will join the network in the country.

It is the vision and commitment of CropLife Ethiopia to continue serving the smallholder farming communities by encouraging them to engage in the safe and responsible use of improved inputs with due diligence to human health and environmental safety.

A delegation from the Plant Protection Directorate (DPVCQ) met with the Executive Committee of CropLife Cote d’Ivoire (CI) on the 26th February to exchange on joint cooperation. The delegation of DPVCQ headed by the Director, Dr. Koffi Adjoumani, who took office earlier this year, comprised of two Deputy-Directors and the Officer in charge of Phytosanitary Agreements.

The delegation from CropLife Cote d’Ivoire comprised the President Guy Liabra, the Vice-President, the Executive Director and the Executive Secretary. The meeting took place at the offices of CropLife CI.

Guy Liabra, President of CropLife CI welcomed the delegation of DPVCQ, then provided a brief on the support by the CropLife CI to the DPVCQ and the joint activities initiated and carried out during the past two years. These activities cover the training of retailers and applicators seeking certification by the DPVCQ, the SSP program, the capacity enhancement on regulatory issues and the contribution to the GEF-WB obsolete pesticides project.

This project provided an opportunity to strengthen the fight against the illicit trade of pesticides. The DPVCQ and CropLife CI have the opportunity to engage on many awareness raising programs and training workshops for the enforcement agencies and other key stakeholders through the departmental committees to fight illegal pesticides across the country.

The Director of DPVCQ thanked CropLife CI for the excellent support provided over the years and committed to provide an enabling environment to strengthen such a long-lasting cooperation in line of the public-private partnership. In this regard DPVCQ and CropLife CI will organize frequent meetings in order to formally handle any issue the pesticides industry may face.

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.