YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - The fight against the spread of the Fall army worm in Africa in general and the west and central Africa in particular has moved from the level of planning to concrete action, development and research organisations in the continent have said.
Meeting at a high-level conference on controlling Fall armyworm in west and central Africa in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the different stakeholders agreed it was time to double steps with multiple actions to stop the rapid spread and destruction of the invasive pest.
Reports presented during the conference noted that FAW is expected to spread throughout suitable habitats in mainland sub-Saharan Africa within the next few cropping seasons if not properly controlled. Central, West, Northern Africa and Madagascar are all at risk, the report noted.
With the current rate of spread, Fall Armyworm has become a threat to the food security of over 300million people in sub-Saharan Africa, with rural people most affected.
Agriculture authorities in Cameroon say the larvae of the nondescript gray moths has been spreading rapidly hatching and eating their way through the fields of young maize and millet threatening the food crops supply not only in Cameroon but the entire Central African Economic Commission,CEMAC ,region.
« The damage has been rapid affecting both farmers and business operators in the sector. This is not good news, » Louisette Clemence Bamzok, head of agriculture development at the ministry of agriculture and rural development in Cameroon said.
The authorities are worried the pesticides applied by farmers so far have not yielded the expected results. A new plan of action in collaboration with partners has been launched.
“The pest seem to be resistant to pesticides and other chemical products distributed to farmers. We are working with the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) to find a lasting solution,” says Louisette Clemence Bamzok.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation,FAO , say farmers will need great support to sustainably manage the pest in their cropping systems through Integrated Pest Management.
FAO has launched the Fall Armyworm Monitoring and Early Warning System (FAMEWS) mobile app that will hence provide valuable insights to enable Africn farmers, agricultural workers and other partners better fight against the pest.
According to Jean-Baptiste Bahama of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the operationalisation of National Task Force on fall armyworm is key to efficiently coordinating preparedness and response through contingency planning.
“FAO has responded to the fall armyworm situation in Africa by developing tools, resources, installing capacity for fall armyworm early warning system (FAMEWS), and developing and coordinating pesticide policies at national, regional and global levels” Bahama said.
“The time is now to invest in a sustainable, effective response to FAW in Africa. The only thing missing are the resources to scale-up and scale-out this important work,” he added. To AfDB's country Manager for Cameroon, Solomane Kone and Chrys Akem, TAAT Programme Coordinator at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), this is where the AfDB comes in through the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme.
The government of Cameroon for its part says they are leaving no stone unturned.
« We are multiplying efforts and hope a solution will be found timeously, » Clementine Ananga said at the launch of the new plan in March 2018.
The plan calls for the certification of two pesticides with appeal for financial support and participation of the private sector and international partners.
The Food and Agriculture Organization FAO has already disbursed CFA120 million,the Minister said during the launch.
Government hopes the program to be implemented for 18 months will help put an end to ravages of the fall armyworm.
But these promises and plans seem to do little to quell the fears and anquish of farmers and business operators in the sector.
« We hope the announced government plan in not just another talking therapy. We want to see it implemeted and get the results, » says Bernard Njonga.
Nairobi, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Eleven different African institutions have come together through a consortium to build capacities of African scientists who are researching on common diseases, especially those that are transmitted from livestock to human and vice versa through a concept known as ‘One health.’
“Many times we treat tuberculosis in humans, but it doesn’t work because it is originating from livestock animals,” said Dr Bassirou Bonfoh, the Director for the consortium also known as African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence (ASPIRE).
“One health concept therefore recognises that the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment, and must therefore be tackled wholesomely,” said Bonfoh.
One Health is therefore defined as a collaborative, multisectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach -working at the local, regional, national, and global levels - with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
The consortium is currently supporting 60 young African scientists (Master, PhD students and Postdocs) who are currently researching on different diseases that include TB, brucellosis, rabies among many others.
From Kenya for example, James Akoko is one of the fellows studying brucellosis for his PhD at Maseno University.
Brucellosis is one of the neglected diseases, and it is transmitted from livestock to humans through poor meat handling, consumption of unpasteurized dairy products and direct contact with infected animals.
“My study seeks to understand the role of different animals in the treatment of the disease,” said Akoko.
He notes that if one is infected with the disease, then it is important to understand the origin in order to address the disease conclusively.
“In many cases, we treat brucellosis without knowing whether the patient picked it from a goat, a cow or even a camel,” said Akoko. To address this, his study insists on interviewing the patient to understand the very animals they interact with, what kind of meat they eat and also the milk they take so as to know the target for vaccination.
Through the consortium, Akoko is linked to supervisors based in Kenya, Tanzania and Switzerland. “We coordinate through skype meetings, emails, workshops and even conferences,” said the researcher.
Other researchers are focusing on major steps towards elimination of rabies in Africa.
“There is evidence that rabies can be eliminated. But we have not been able to do it,” said Bonfoh.
The scientists are therefore involved in efforts to eliminate rabies in Tanzania, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire using an all inclusive e approach of ‘One health.’
“Governments need to take up the fight against these important diseases, which affect mostly the poor,” said Bonfoh. “But the problem has been that nearly all governments focus on priority diseases while neglecting some very important ones,” he said.
Nairobi, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Eleven different African institutions have come together through a consortium to build capacities of African scientists who are researching on common diseases, especially those that are transmitted from livestock to human and vice versa through a concept known as ‘One health.’
“Many times we treat tuberculosis in humans, but it doesn’t work because it is originating from livestock animals,” said Dr Bassirou Bonfoh, the Director for the consortium also known as African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence (ASPIRE).
“One health concept therefore recognises that the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment, and must therefore be tackled wholesomely,” said Bonfoh.
One Health is therefore defined as a collaborative, multisectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach -working at the local, regional, national, and global levels - with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
The consortium is currently supporting 60 young African scientists (Master, PhD students and Postdocs) who are currently researching on different diseases that include TB, brucellosis, rabies among many others.
From Kenya for example, James Akoko is one of the fellows studying brucellosis for his PhD at Maseno University.
Brucellosis is one of the neglected diseases, and it is transmitted from livestock to humans through poor meat handling, consumption of unpasteurized dairy products and direct contact with infected animals.
“My study seeks to understand the role of different animals in the treatment of the disease,” said Akoko.
He notes that if one is infected with the disease, then it is important to understand the origin in order to address the disease conclusively.
“In many cases, we treat brucellosis without knowing whether the patient picked it from a goat, a cow or even a camel,” said Akoko. To address this, his study insists on interviewing the patient to understand the very animals they interact with, what kind of meat they eat and also the milk they take so as to know the target for vaccination.
Through the consortium, Akoko is linked to supervisors based in Kenya, Tanzania and Switzerland. “We coordinate through skype meetings, emails, workshops and even conferences,” said the researcher.
Other researchers are focusing on major steps towards elimination of rabies in Africa.
“There is evidence that rabies can be eliminated. But we have not been able to do it,” said Bonfoh.
The scientists are therefore involved in efforts to eliminate rabies in Tanzania, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire using an all inclusive e approach of ‘One health.’
“Governments need to take up the fight against these important diseases, which affect mostly the poor,” said Bonfoh. “But the problem has been that nearly all governments focus on priority diseases while neglecting some very important ones,” he said.
NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - African Civil society organisations (CSO’s) have raised concerns on lack of follow up and implementation of environmental policies by African governments.
In a statement to the 7th special session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), the CSOs observed the need to move away from talk shows where policies are discussed but little or nothing is done in terms of implementation.
With reference to the theme of this year’s AMCEN, “turning environmental policies into action through innovative solutions”, the CSOs called for coordinated approaches in the implementation of activities, and avoid a stand-alone working culture by government ministries, which they said, was currently the case in most African countries.
They bemoaned most governments’ insistence on the top to bottom approaches and disjointed policy implementation.
“We have been part of this process for a long time and having policies after policies at both local and national levels but what we have had challenges with is how to implement these policies,” said Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). “It doesn’t matter so much that we meet every year and do a declaration, what we are looking at is how to put these issues into action.”
Citing the food systems sector, the CSOs urged governments to embrace innovations that link agriculture to all related natural resources and environmental management policies.
“We urge governments to link agriculture policies to land tenure systems, farmer cooperatives, extension and advisory services and adopt policies that allow small scale farmers to get easy access to farmland, integrating policies for national security such as export policies, energy policy, water policy, seed policy, post-harvest wastage, health of soils and organic methods such as Agro ecology,” read part of the statement.
And in support of addressing the perennial market access challenge especially among smallholder farmers, the CSOs believe the promotion of public- private partnerships and platforms in marketing of agricultural products among government ministries, could help farmers move up the economic ladder.
Another issue of concern for African CSOs, which formed part of their two day consultation prior to the AMCEN, is resource and waste management. Under this pillar, they called for life cycle approaches, urging governments to integrate informal sector such as private waste collectors into formal policies and laws, monitoring and promote the principles of extended producer responsibility and encourage take back schemes combined with financial incentives to encourage recycling programmes.
“We further urge the governments to integrate sound waste management practices at school curricula and integrate these into education policies to encourage attitude change,” they said.
And with the realisation that Africa was a net importer of goods and services, the CSOs called for development of a cost effective way of protecting Africans from chemical hazards in the imported goods.
“To regulate such, we urge African ministers to support the establishment of a new global framework for plastic pollution and nominate African experts to the ad-hoc expert working group on marine litter and micro plastics mandated by UNEA 4,” they proposed.
According to available statistics, air pollution is believed to contribute to over 9 million premature deaths (16% of all deaths globally), especially linked to inefficient waste management such as open burning.
On this score, the CSOs said they would like to see air pollution control as a high priority for African governments through integrated planning, health surveillance, and transparent reporting mechanisms, not only to slow the pace of climate change but also control non-communicable diseases.
The civil society organisations were drawn from across Africa under the umbrella of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA).
