Ceremony of signing of an agreement between FAO and UMA at FAO Regional Conference for the Near East and North Africa (NERC33)

Rome: 13-05-2016: Mr José Graziano Da Silva, General Director of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Mr Habib Ben Yahia, Secretary General of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) signed Friday, May 13, 2016 an agreement of technical assistance of the implementation of a technical cooperation project for "Strengthening the capacity of the pest quarantine; including red palm weevil (CRP) in the Maghreb countries.”

This project is part of the cooperation program signed in 2014 between the FAO Sub Regional Office for North Africa and the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA). This framework defines the jointly identified priorities for the period 2014-2017. FAO’s assistance will focus on participatory and comprehensive assessment of the phytosanitary capacity of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. A focus on gaps in pest control and identification of priority actions to be fulfilled will develop a strategy and an adapted action plan able to optimize the implementation of preventive aspects of crop protection against diseases and pests and, in particular, the red palm weevil (CRP).

Beyond the consideration of phytosanitary aspects, an important support will be provided to strengthen the exchange of information between the Maghreb countries and to reinforce the necessary coordination for an efficient response to diseases and pests. For that purpose, a system of decision-making and coordination for greater harmonization and coordination of intervention will be implemented with a revitalization of the North African network for plant protection.

It should be notified that addressing these pest control problems, the Maghreb countries are facing significant challenges able to affect the performance of their agriculture, especially the farmers’ production capacity of small-scale agriculture, and generally to the economy of the region largely dependent on the agricultural sector. In recent years, FAO has been mobilized to support countries facing a form of vulnerability caused by the invasions of various pests and parasites that caused various losses and damage to agriculture and animal husbandry and to the country’s economy. The FAO intervention concerned the '' Bayoudh '' fusarios vascular palm; silverleaf nightshade Solanumelaeagnifolium; leafminer Tutaabsoluta tomato; water lettuce Pistiastratiotes and recently the red palm weevil Rhynshophorusferrugineus.