Yesterday, our CEO, Stella SimiyuBW, had the privilege of representing CropLife Africa Middle East at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between aak-GROW/CropLife Kenya and Fahari Aviation.
This partnership represents a significant step in advancing agricultural technology in Kenya through drone applications. Building on the Sustainable Pesticide Management Framework (SPMF) – particularly its second pillar focused on fostering innovation for sustainable food systems – this initiative aims to promote precision agriculture, enhance user safety, ensure food safety, and strengthen food security.
It also reinforces the adoption of good agricultural practices that safeguard farmers’ health and protect the environment.
CropLife Africa Middle East remains committed to driving this initiative forward, helping to shape the future of sustainable farming.
On 7 January, Margaux Rundstadler, Director of Public Affairs & Communications, joined a panel discussion on “The future of regulation and market access – turning policy developments into opportunities.” , at a Syngenta event organised in Agadir, Morocco, with distributors from North and West Africa. She spoke alongside CropLife AME President – Jerome Barbaron – and industry distributors.
The objective was to raise awareness on the current EU Developments around the EU Omnibus on Food and Feed Safety and the challenges that third countries exporters may face around this legislation. Indeed, the proposal includes an amendment to the MRL regulation (Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), restricting import tolerances for certain substances not approved in the EU. The revision sets out that for substances that are not approved in the EU with certain particularly hazardous properties, import tolerances may be set at the limit of quantification (technical zero) if considered appropriate considering the outcome of an impact assessment.
Such measures could create significant trade barriers for exporters of agricultural commodities from the Africa-Middle East region supplying the EU market.
At CropLife AME, we remain committed to sustainable and resilient agriculture. We firmly believe there is no one-size-fits-all solution – crops grown in the AME region require specific tools that are not necessarily needed in the EU, as pest and disease pressures differ significantly.