Accra, Dec. 2, GNA – The Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) has held a five-day pest risks analysis training workshop for officers from National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) in West Africa.
The training is financially supported by the PlantwisePlus programme, led by CABI, which aims to help countries predict, prepare for and prevent potential plant health threats.
The workshop aimed to build on the progress made in pest prediction and prevention over the past few years in West Africa by developing regional PRAs for high-priority invasive pests in the subregion.
In 2023, CABI trained some representatives from West African countries on the use of its digital Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) tool to conduct PRA.
Again, in May 2024, CABI with financial support from FAO, held a regional workshop to assist West and Central Africa NPPOs to develop a list of priority alien invasive plant pests for their subregions using Horizon Scanning approaches.
The focus of the current workshop was on the conduct of full
PRA for some of the priority pests. This is to help the NPPOs of the subregion to be familiar with PRA and its application as the foundation for justifying sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and prioritising pests for interventions.
The identification of pest threats and application of appropriate SPS measures to prevent the introduction of invasive species to the West Africa region is critical for protecting domestic crop production and facilitating the safe import of plant commodities into the region. This will also be helpful for trade between West African countries and for international market access for exports.
Addressing participants at the opening session, Dr Victor Clottey, CABI Regional Director for West Africa, said the aim was to have a regional PRA which could be adopted by the various countries. He expressed the hope that all the skills acquired by the participants were being put to good use in their countries and have been shared with others.
“We need to think about how we can sustainably do this Regional PRAs. We have left some of the pests on our priority list. There is the question of the time to do it. We should possibly be thinking of a model where you share among yourselves the pests on the list,” he said, adding that within a short time, they could have a working document.
Mr Eric Bentsil Quaye, Director Plant Protection Regulatory Services Directorate, said the issue of climate
change had become critical and with every agricultural development
activity, there was the need to think about the impact of climate change.
Mr Quaye lauded CABI for the PRA tool that all countries were using in pest analysis, which is important scientifically.
“This is why we have participated in the training sessions that CABI has organized to develop our skills in handling pests in our various countries. So, I believe that once we are here, we are going to put our skills together again to ensure that we improve what we do back in our respective countries. This is the importance of this tool. I believe that we can all bring our minds together so that we can perfect whatever we have as long as this will benefit all our countries,” he said.
Participant perspectives on the benefits of the workshop.
Mr Orumah Gowon Abdullahi, a representative of the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Nigeria, said he had picked a lot in the five days and expressed enormous appreciation and gratitude to CABI.
“The benefits so far for the past five days are enormous. One, it has cemented my knowledge of PRA and also as a refresher for the first training in PRA. Secondly, it has enhanced my capacity in terms of PRA and provided an avenue for beneficial interactions with other representatives or participants from other countries.
Mr Abdullahi said he was looking forward to sharing the knowledge acquired with the officers in the Service as international trade in agro-commodities could not be perfect without PRA of commodities or pests.
Mrs Assa Balayaia Diouf, Head of the Phytosanitary Training Centre of the Plant Protection Department in Senegal, a third-time participant, said the training was very important for West Africa as countries could not live without importing from other countries.
She said because of climate change and the nutrition of people, there was a need to have several kinds of food in our countries, especially fresh fruit or vegetables. This trade in food commodities comes with the potential exchange of so many quarantine species between our continent and other continents like Asia, Europe or America.
“This kind of training will help us to know the exotic pests that are not yet in our country and to know whether they are in neighbouring countries or in countries we trade with. The PRA tool will help us to analyse the potential of introducing these exotic pests into our countries, their pathways of entry, their host plants, and their bioecology among other things.”
The training was facilitated by a team of experts from CABI including Dr Roger Day, Dr Lakpo Koku Agboyi, Dr MaryLucy Oronje and Dr Hettie Arwo Boafo from CABI with support from Mr Patrick Beseh of PPRSD, Ghana.
Dr Lakpo Agboyi commended the NPPO delegates for their commitment and active participation which made it possible to conduct full PRA for eight (8) priority invasive alien pests for West Africa. He further exhorted the participants to keep working as a PRA team to support regular assessment of biological invasions to safeguard agriculture and trade in the subregion.
GNA