AFRICA – CABI and partners are bringing together interventions in food safety to protect the health of consumers, plants and animals, as projections show the Africa’s population will rise to 2.5 billion by 2050.
Benoit Gnonlonfin, sanitary and phytosanitary global programme lead, CABI said “The need to strengthen [food health and safety] capacities at national and regional levels … has never been more pertinent.”
“We’re having a lot of demand for safe food by consumer associations globally, increasing every year,” he said. “People are not just looking for food, they are looking for safe food.”
As an inter-governmental non-profit organisation, CABI works with all actors along the food value chain, including governments, agro-dealers, farmers and food processors, according to Gnonlonfin.
Food safety is a very complex situation, he explained, adding that it needs coming together … so that each partner knows what to do to achieve the goal.
Unsafe food costs low- and middle-income economies US$110 billion a year in lost productivity and medical expenses, according to the World Bank, with Africa accounting for a large proportion.
To meet the demand of food security, farmers in Africa are increasingly turning to pesticides to fend off destructive crop pests.
This has led to serious concerns about the effects on human health and the environment, including from the handling of harmful substances and residue left on agricultural produce.
In efforts to address this, CABI is contributing to a US$37-million agricultural programme aimed at reducing the use of pesticides and plastics in agricultural production.
It is also supporting the development of a national pesticide residue monitoring framework for Kenya through its global PlantwisePlus programme, to reduce the use of banned or illegal pesticides and reduce food contamination.
“That’s one of our pesticide risk-reduction interventions,” said Gnonlonfin. “We encourage the creation of alternatives to promote low-risk pesticides [and] use of biopesticides made of plant products,” he added.
Through the PlantwisePlus programme, farmers can receive information about how much pesticide to use and the right time to spray it, as well as help detecting pesticide residue levels on crops.
Diana Akullo Ogwal, principal officer for sanitary and phytosanitary measures at the African Continental Free Trade Area organisation, reiterated the need for national, regional and international policies to improve food safety, especially in Africa.
She explained that good standards and practices in trade can be instrumental in determining the safety level of food, stressing the need for channels that take food safely from producer to consumer.
