Capacity of SADC Member States to conduct Pest Risk Analysis strengthened through regional training workshop.
New and existing transboundary pests continue to impact agriculture and trade in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Countries in the region need to increase capacities to control these pests and mitigate their impact through application of robust pest management measures that meet standards of international markets. The European Union (EU) funded project to provide “Support towards Operationalization of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy” (STOSAR), seeks to strengthen the capacity for SADC Member States to conduct Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) to generate key information that can facilitate trade while managing the spread of new pests across national boundaries.
Pest risk analysis (PRA) is the process of evaluating biological, scientific and economic evidence to determine whether an organism is a pest, whether it should be regulated, and the strength of the phytosanitary measures to be taken against it (IPCC, 2007).
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) together with the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) jointly organized a virtual workshop for National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) from SADC Member States to provide training on PRA for the implementation of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures. The workshop, which was held over five half-days from 14 to 18 June, saw about 55 participants engage actively in discussions and on-line exercises each day of the training. Methodologies employed during the virtual workshop encouraged a fully participatory learning experience, alternating between presentations, group practical sessions, question and answer sessions and a panel discussion. Participants received training to strengthen their capacities to perform PRA including use of the CABI PRA tool (https://www.cabi.org/PRA-tool), the Horizon Scanning tool (https://www.cabi.org/horizonscanningtool), as well as the Crop Protection Compendium (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/about/).
The workshop provided a platform for countries to share experiences and to learn from best practices, and provided an opportunity for the organizers to take note of concerns and priorities of Member States. The need to improve documentation of PRA in the SADC region was emphasized with participants encouraged to publish PRAs on NPPO websites in order to inform neighboring states and improve transparency with trading partners.
All SADC Member States, with the exception of South Africa, benefit from free subscription to the CABI PRA tool. Countries were strongly encouraged to activate these subscriptions and make full use of the resource. The CABI PRA tool was launched in 2019 and the organization is keen to incorporate comments from users to improve its functionality.
In his closing remarks, the Lead Technical Officer of the STOSAR Project and Plant Production and Protection Officer at the FAO Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa, Dr. Mathew Abang, acknowledged that a lot had been accomplished through the workshop but recognized that more remains to be done. He confirmed the commitment and unwavering support of FAO and the STOSAR Project to assist countries to develop and improve skills in PRA, and contribute towards safer trade in agricultural commodities in the region.