newsletter april 2014 - CropLife AME€¦ · session on PRD/CBI, which was facilitated by Rudolf Guyer and Bama Yao. ... CLAME gave a presentation on the situation of counterfeit

Number 101 April 2014

CropLife Africa Middle East Newsletter

Representing the Plant Science Industry

Stewardship

Meeting with IFDC, CATALIST - Uganda

On 4 March a meeting took place with David Slane, Chief of Party, to outline the finer points on the possibility of an SSP pilot project in two regions. This would cover 1000 maize farmers in the Lango sub-region and 1000 Irish potato farmers in the South West region.

Shortly after this meeting a Concept Note and budget was finalized and submitted. The outcome should be known shortly.

L-R Betty Atto, David Slane, Manon Dohmen and Stephen Matovu

Photo Courtesy: CATALIST Uganda

Les Hillowitz


CropLi fe Af r ica Middle East Newslet ter Number 101 Apr i l 2014

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Regulatory

Meeting of the Regional Regulatory Committee and Training Workshop on PRD/CBI

The regulatory meeting and training workshop took place on 11 & 12 March, at the Hotel Mehari Hammamet in Tunis.

Participants included

Members of the RRC, CropLife Tunisia and pesticide regulators of Tunisia.

Xavier Schmid, consultant and J-P Bascou, as guest speaker on equivalence

Rudolf Guyer, DG and B. Yao, WCA Regional Coordinator.

The meeting was organized as the first for Regional Regulatory Committee (RRC) in 2014 to discuss the regulatory issues in Africa and the Middle East, whilst the opportunity was taken to conduct a training workshop on PRD/CBI and equivalence assessment. A detailed report covering the event was issued with the focus on WCA, namely:

The new packaging requirements in Cameroon for which there are on-going discussions with the Cameroon authorities. These discussions with the Cameroon authorities will continue during the Hub meeting in April, in Yaoundé.

The West African Pesticides Alliance for which ECOWAS requested CropLife AME to play a leading role. Details of a structured mission will be discussed during the Hub meeting in Yaoundé with the Director of Agriculture, Depart-ment of Agriculture and Environment of the ECOWAS Commission.

Other topics discussed included the CEMAC-CPAC regulatory framework, the revision of regulations in Côte d’Ivoire and the Hub meeting for which the Chair of the RRC called for stronger member participation.

Regulators and industry participant’s together with members of ATPP-CropLife Tunisia attended the training session on PRD/CBI, which was facilitated by Rudolf Guyer and Bama Yao. J-P Bascou facilitated the training on “equivalence”. Both sessions were well appreciated by all participants.

Bama Yao



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Anti Counterfeiting

Fighting the Illegal Trade in Crop Protection Products in Côte d’Ivoire

In 2013 the Crop Protection Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture conducted several training sessions across the country for officers and agents of the Ministry of Agriculture and for Customs Services with the support of CropLife AME and CropLife Côte d’Ivoire. Participants were provided with the knowledge and tools to identify illegal pesticides when conducting inspections on the market or at the ports and borders of entry.

This group has been very active on the ground and recently their efforts led to the seizure of two truckloads of illegal pesticides on 17 March, entering the country in the city of Ferkessedougou, northern Côte d’Ivoire. The seized pesticides are exclusively glyphosate-based herbicides with a volume of 11328 litres. They are currently stored at the premises of the Customs Services in Ferkessedougou.

The seized trucks (Top Left and centre) used to transport the 11328 litres of illegal pesticides (Below left and right) in northern Côte d’Ivoire : Photos Courtesy : Crop Protection Directorate, Côte d’Ivoire

Bama Yao



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INTERPOL: Operational Planning Meeting – Operation Wipeout, 25-27 March, Kigali, Rwanda

The INTERPOL Trafficking In Illicit Goods and Counterfeiting (TIGC) Sub-Directorate organized an Operational Planning Meeting with the Rwanda National Police from 25th to 27th March, in Kigali, Rwanda. The meeting was to prepare operations to take place in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia from 21st April to 27th April. The Operational Planning Meeting took place at the Manor Hotel, Kigali.

The targeted commodities are excisable goods (cigarettes, alcohol, fuel) and any product highly counterfeited/pirated/smuggled in the region, except pharmaceutical products as this falls within the area of another Sub-Directorate at INTERPOL. The objective of the operation was to identify, disrupt and dismantle transnational organized networks involved in trafficking in illicit goods in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The 3-day operational planning meeting got together representatives from the public sector from each participative country and from the private sector. The first day was a closed law-enforcement session. The private sector participated in the operational planning meeting on 26 and 27 March. There were approximately 50 delegates at the workshop.

CLAME gave a presentation on the situation of counterfeit crop protection products in the region and will engage with INTERPOL on the operations planned for April.

Davie Chilalire and Françoise Dorcier of INTERPOL

Les Hillowitz



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Association Management

CropLife Madagascar has a new President

CropLife Madagascar held their AGM on 7 March at which a new President was elected.

He is Ronhald Rakotomalala and his company; MPS recently joined the CropLife Madagascar national association. MPS represents Bayer Environmental Science and CropChem, both based in South Africa.

After 8 highly successful years during which he took CropLife Madagascar to new heights, as President, Rivo Andriamanalina took the decision to step down.

We take this opportunity to thank Rivo for his valuable contribution in the building of CropLife Madagascar to an outstanding association and to wish him every success in his future endeavors. We also use this opportunity to welcome Ronhald to the CropLife family and to wish him every success in his term of office.

CropLife Zimbabwe Holds AGM

Les Hillowitz Ronhald Rakotomalala

CropLife Zimbabwe held their AGM at the Royal Harare Golf Club on Friday 28 March.

A highlight of the meeting was the short address by the Permanent Secretary of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation, Mr. Ringson Chitsiko.

Ms. Yevai Goto was re-elected as Chairperson of the National Association

Les Hillowitz

Ms. Yevai Goto was re-elected as Chairman of CropLife Zimbabwe

The Permanent Secretary of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation, Mr. Ringson Chitsiko



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CropLife South Africa: AGM

CropLife South Africa held their AGM on 18 March at which Kobus Steenekamp and Marius Boshoff were re-elected as President and Vice President for the second year of their two-year term.

The Executive Committee remains unchanged with the addition of Andre Schreuder as a new member

Tom Mabesa

CropLife Kenya holds Annual General Meeting

L - R: Hugo Minnaar, Henk van der Westhuizen, Johan du Plessis, Marius Boshoff (Vice President), Kobus Steenekamp (President), Leon Smith and Jacques du Preez. Not in the photo: Antonie Delport, Chris van Eeden, Rodney Foran, Roy Cackett and Andre Schreuder

CropLife Kenya held its Annual General Meeting on 28th March 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel Nairobi where Kuria Gatonye was re-elected Chairman and Susan Njoroge, Vice Chairman

Highlights of the meeting included:

CropLife Kenya would continue lobbying government to zero rate all pest control products under the VAT Act.

The three flagship projects agreed upon for 2014 are:

A Spray Service Provider project.

A Container Management Programme in the Mt. Kenya Re-gion

An Anti-counterfeit program

The Spray Service Provider program will start in April in Kirinyaga and Kajiado counties. The crops to be addressed are French beans and tomatoes

The Container Management Programme in the Mt. Kenya Region, which has already started, will be supported by all industry players and in partnership with government (National and County).

Richard Sikuku Kuria Gatonye addressing the meeting



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CropLife Zambia Annual General Meeting - 27 March

Chola Kamaki, who has been acting Chairman was officially elected as Chairman of the association. Mark Stokes was elected to the position of Honorary Secretary.

The Vision of the new ExCo for the next 12 months includes:

To develop a mechanism for self-policing in order to give the Association greater credibility.

To work with ZEMA and MUSIKA in the launch of the Agro-Dealer Certification Program.

To make CropLife Zambia more visible to the general public and Government through directed activities and publicity.

To create more partnerships to offer services and opportunities to members

Projects proposed for the 2014 / 2015 period include:

Container Management

An anti-counterfeiting program

The Agro-Dealer Certification Program

The regulating body, ZEMA took the opportunity to mention the growing influence that CropLife Zambia is having on Industry and the valued contribution towards the ZEMA programs.

Participants at the CropLife Zambia AGM

Perry Ngoma



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Plant Biotechnology

Partners and Stakeholders’ Coordination Meeting on Biosafety Capacity Development in Africa

The meeting organized by the NEPAD Agency African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), IFPRI’s Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS) and other Biotechnology and Biosafety Stakeholders took place in Lilongwe, Malawi, 17 - 18 March.

The keynote address; “From paper to practice – Managing field trials for GM cotton in Malawi” was undertaken by Prof. Moses Kwapata.

Clear focus was given to the following countries:

Kenya

Uganda

Ghana

Malawi

Within the area of progress towards sub-regional frameworks for biotechnology and biosafety, updates were provided on:

ECOWAS / WAEMU

COMESA / ACTESA

SADC

EAC

An action plan for 2014 was developed at country level for Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Malawi as well as collaboration with REC’s in addressing global issues and challenges.

Les Hillowitz

Prof. Moses Kwapata

Group Photo of the Participants



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CLI Partners Meeting : Malawi - 19 March

Key points on the CLI Partners Meeting included:

An update on the “cross platform” initiative. This

was supported by presentations from both AFSTA

and CLAME.

Partner presentations included: AfricaBio on South

Africa, PBS on Malawi and Uganda, Africa Harvest

on Ghana and Burkina Faso and ABSF on Kenya.

ISAAA gave feedback of a general nature.

Meeting Participants

Cross-Platform Initiative: Ghana

Les Hillowitz

The “Cross-Platform” initiative covers the outreach and education efforts in 2014 to integrate plant biotechnology into activities

undertaken by CropLife Ghana. As a start this is likely to focus on anti-counterfeiting.

On 27 March the first of four interventions kicked-off in Accra, Ghana. Participation included 40 representatives from both the

public, (MoFA EPA) and private sectors, (members of CropLife Ghana as well as professional organizations including producers

& farmers organizations).

A clear outcome is the need to engage in joint activities to combat counterfeiting and the illegal trade of all agricultural inputs.

This is of particular importance for both crop protection products and seeds.

Bama Yao



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Organizational Notice

We are pleased to announce that Stella Nambuswa Simiyu – Wafukho will join CropLife Africa Middle East on 1 June 2014 and assume the newly created role of Regulatory and Advocacy Manager. Stella will strengthen our team in regulatory matters and lead our efforts to address the issues of Highly Hazardous Pesticides, Endocrine Disruption and Pollinators.

Stella obtained a B.A. (Hons), Upper Division (Political Science) from the University of Nairobi, Kenya in 1996. In 1999 she received a Master of Policy Studies from the South African Regional Institute of Policy Studies (SARIPS) affiliated to the Universities of Zimbabwe and Dar es Salaam. While already working, Stella then studied French at the Alliance Française in Nairobi from 2001-2003 where she received the “Diplôme de la langue Française” in 2003.

From 2011 to 2012 Stella followed a postgraduate program in Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology at the University of Ghent in Belgium. Stella is married and mother to three boys aged 15, 13 and 6.

Stella has been working with charity organizations including the International Red Cross, in Kenya as a Dissemination Officer and for Feed the Children in Kenya. From 2001 to 2006 Stella worked at the Embassy of Belgium in Nairobi as a Trade Officer and as the Assistant to the Trade Commissioner where she undertook market research for entrepreneurs, advocacy and organizing trade missions. From 2007 to date, Stella has been working as a Program Officer for the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) based in Nairobi. This foundation seeks to facilitate the access and uptake of appropriate agricultural technologies by resource – poor smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa through the forging and managing of Public Private Partnerships. Her particular responsibilities included activities to influence the development of enabling regulatory requirements of target African countries for GM crops, bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers. Stella contributed to the sound management of over 20 Confined Field Trials (CFT) across East and South Africa (South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya) and West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso). She has also been involved in work with USDA – FAS in support of Codex work targeting food safety in Africa.

We welcome Stella to the team and wish her every success in her new role.

Rudolf Guyer



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GROWING FOOD - CREATING RENEWABLES - SUPPLYING SUSTAINABLY

IPM / RU Steering Committee Meeting, Brussels April 9

Stewardship Steering Committee Meeting, Brussels April 10

Container Management Project Team Meeting, Brussels April 11

WCA Hub & Regulatory Workshop April 23-24

Pollinator Issue Team meeting, Brussels May 13

Global Regulatory Steering committee Meeting, Brussels May 14-15

Pollinator Forum, South Africa May 21

34th CSP Ordinary Session for Pesticides Registration May 26-30

CLAME AGM and Board Meeting, Brussels June 10

Meeting of the CPSC, Brussels June 11

Meeting of the Anti-Counterfeiting Steering Committee, Brussels June 12

Meeting of the Communications SC, Brussels June 13

USAID-CLP-IFDC-CropLife International Anti-Counterfeiting training workshop

for the administration agents and judiciary officers, Bamako, Mali. Bamako June18-19



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Contributors:

Bama Octave Yao (West-Central Africa) [email protected]

Les Hillowitz (East-Southern Africa) [email protected]

Documents

newsletter april 2014 - CropLife AME€¦ · session on PRD/CBI, which was facilitated by Rudolf Guyer and Bama Yao. ... CLAME gave a presentation on the situation of counterfeit