The project to support the regional plan to manage and control fruit flies in West Africa (PLMF) has helped reduce by 57% the interceptions of mangos at the European borders, according to Salifou Ousseini, executive director of the ECOWAS Regional Agency for Food and Agriculture (ARAA).
The PLMF also contributed to increasing by more than 40% the mango exports from the ECOWAS region, as indicated by Salifou Ousseini during an annual regional workshop to assess and program the project “Innovative Regional Fruit Fly Management System in West Africa" (SyRIMAO).
“After four years of effective implementation between 2015 and 2019, this project has achieved very significant results, especially with the reduction by 57% of mango interceptions at the EU borders and the increase of more than 40% of mango exports from the ECOWAS region.”
Although “important”, these achievements “need to be consolidated, scaled up and sustained in all ECOWAS member countries.”
He added that it is the reason why ECOWAS and its partners, the EU and AFD, have set up the second phase of the project through SyRIMAO.
This project will help finalize the most promising research protocols and disseminate the results and techniques developed to all countries of the West African subregion.
It will also contribute to consolidating the surveillance and early warning system in ECOWAS countries by involving and mobilizing producers, the private sector, research centers and plant protection services.
“This project will help reinforce the capacities of public and private actors on the new EU sanitary regulation and set up the appropriate mechanisms and instruments to maintain the financing of surveillance and control activities,” added the executive director of ARAA.
The project, which closed in 2019, was financed by the European Union, the French Development Agency (AFD), ECOWAS and its member states.
Source: aps.sn
