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STDF co-ordination work on fruit fly in West Africa

Overview

Damage caused by fruit flies has been recognized as a quarantine problem for fruit and vegetables for many years. Among the fruit and vegetables that are attacked by fruit flies (e.g. melons, water-melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, chilis, mangos), mango is the most important in both volume and value of trade, as well as in terms of the damage inflicted by fruit flies. 

The spread of Bactrocera Invadens, combined with other fruit fly species already present in West African states, has had a negative impact on production and export of mangos from West Africa. 

Under the umbrella of Aid for Trade and as part of the STDF's co-ordination role, the STDF is working closely with the World Bank, the European Commission, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, the Economic Commission of West African States, the West African Economic and Monetary Union, the Pesticides Initiative Programme, and other stakeholders to promote a co-ordinated response to the issue of the spread and control of Bactrocera Invadens and other fruit fly species of economic importance to West Africa. 

A vehicle for this co-ordinated approach has emerged from an EC-funded scoping study (_{en fr}). This study underlines the need for a common regional approach to control fruit fly in West Africa through the implementation of a well coordinated regional action plan. The study makes a series of recommendations for actions at national level.

Actions to date

In July 2008, under the aegis of the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture and Mali's Minister of the Environment, 15 ECOWAS member states met in Bamako, Mali to discuss and validate the EC scoping study on fruit fly financed by the European Commission.  The STDF participated in this meeting.

Recommendations arising included: 

• initiating concerted regional action for the management of fruit flies and developing an appropriate phytosanitary response to control the pest;

• organizing a meeting of donors with a view to financing the Regional Action Plan proposed and ensuring that donor actions are coordinated; and

• creating national fruit fly committees with public and private participation to supervise implementation of the Action Plan at national level.

Forthcoming actions

A range of organizations are already engaged in funding work to control the damage of fruit fly in West Africa.  Agreeing a common framework for action between all affected countries and their development partners would increase the impact of actions to control fruit fly in West Africa.  To this end, an STDF meeting is being planned for early 2009 which will aim to: 

• consider positive experiences from elsewhere in the world in the control of fruit fly;

• mobilize development partners around a common regional control plan; and

• examine implementation modalities for a concerted regional action for the management of fruit flies in West Africa.

Resources

As part of this co-ordination work, we are keen to collect documentation on existing and planned actions on fruit fly control in the West African region as well as successful examples of control methods used in other parts of the world.

Please send these resources to our main contact on the fruit fly work:  panos.antonakakis@wto.org

Downloads

EC Scoping study English

EC Scoping study French

ECOWAS workshop report

                                                                                                                Site Last Updated on February, 2008