IAPPS NEWSLETTER

Number VII      November, 2003

MEETING OF THE IAPPS GOVERNING BOARD
8-9 SEPTEMBER 2003, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Attendance:
Chair: Dr. Hans R. Herren, President
Dr. J. Lawrence Apple, Secretary General
Dr. Baruch Rubin, Vice-President
Dr. Bill Tweedy, Treasurer
Dr. Pierre Urech, Industry Representative
Dr. Graham Matthews, Journal Editor
Dr. Manuele Tamò, Newsletter Editor
Dr. Keith Brent, Coordinator, Europe
Dr. Mohamed Besri, Coordinator, North Africa/Middle East
Dr. Braima James, Coordinator, Sub-Saharan Africa
Dr. Cheng Zhuomin, representative of IPPC Host country

Key Meeting outputs:
Regional report - Europe: Major plant protection societies and organizations expressed little interest about creating a European network under the IAPPS Umbrella, as the continent is already well served with plant protection groupings. The exception was BCPC, who did show interest in closer links with IAPPS. The idea of organizing a workshop on modern IPM approaches has however found some interest.

Regional report - North Africa/Middle East: IAPPS Country Representatives in the region have been appointed and handed over a set of IAPPS information slides and leaflets. It has been proposed to create working groups in the region to handle specific crop protection issues complementary to the existing networks and organizations. These new working groups would mainly organize meetings, collect and disseminate information and also be active in advising policy makers on emerging issues in crop protection.

Regional report - Africa: IAPPS has been introduced to the African Association of Insect Scientists (AAIS) and to the Inter African Phytosanitary Council (IAPSC). The link to IAPSC is a very positive move forward for IAPPS, in particular as the IAPSC is a policy organ of the Africa Union in Crop protection matters. IAPPS will have a seat on the IAPSC Steering Committee. A proposal for an African common Plant protection Strategy has also been submitted to the IAPPS GB. Main objectives of CAPPS would be to increase overall capacities in crop protection in Africa through training, access to information and policy advice.

Review/discussion of Elsevier contract: The contractual arrangements with Elsevier for the publication of the IAPPS Newsletter and access to the Journal Crop protection for IAPPS members has been reviewed and discussed. An agreement has been reached for the access to the electronic version of Crop protection for each IAPPS member until the end of 2004. New arrangements will be discussed in 2004 regarding further access to the electronic and hard copies.

IPPC 2004-Beijing. Dr. Cheng Zhuo-min represented the IPPC 04 at the GB meeting. He presented the latest development in the planning of the Congress. All is well under control in terms of logistics. A revised Congress circular will be made available by the end of October 2003. It will include updated information on the programme and misc. events dates. A new drive to assure good attendance will be undertaken by the Congress organizers as well as the IAPPS GB members. A list of suggestions and requests that the IPPC organizers will need to address in the next months has been given to Dr. Cheng by the IAPPS GB.

External perception of IAPPS: The IAPPS GB heard the presentations from Dr. C. Verschueren, Director General, CropLife International, Dr. G. Guendermann, Vice President of the Federal biological research Centre for Agriculture-Germany and Dr. F. Schmider, Director General, ECPA. All three presentations emphasized the need for IAPPS to define itself better, have visible activities that are in support of the crop protections sciences, in particular at policy levels.

On the IAPPS membership issue, the discussion focused on the need to move more towards an affiliate mode of membership rather than individuals. IAPPS with its mission and mandate would be most effective in assisting crop protection organizations and societies in the policy development and information dissemination areas. The issue will be discussed further at the next GB meeting in Beijing.

It has also been decided make a new drive to get nominations for the IAPPS Award of Distinction. All IAPPS members are invited to make nominations by March 1st.

The IAPPS will need new members for its GB. The Secretary General, the Treasurer and the Europe Regional Coordinator have decided to step down after the GB meeting in Beijing. Nominations are being sought for these positions. The Industry Representative, Dr. Pierre Urech has also stepped down and has been replaced with Dr. Christian Verschueren, Director General of CropLife International.

The GB has also interviewed the Representative of the IPPC 2007 bid, Drs. David V. Alford and Chris Todd (BCPC). From the written bid and the explanation given, the GB has endorsed BCPC for the IPPC 2007. It will be held in Glasgow, Scotland. There were a few concerns raised which will be communicated in the acceptance letter to BCPC. These points concern the length of the congress, registration fees and IAPPS involvement in programme planning.

The Governing Board expresses its most sincere thanks to CropLife International for having hosted this meeting.

Dr. Hans R. Herren,
IAPPS President and Director,
ICIPE, Nairobi, Kenya
h.herren@icipe.org

PARASITIC WEEDS UNDER THREAT IN AFRICA

An African-wide partnership project called "Sustainable integrated parasitic weed management in cereal-legume production systems in Africa" (SIPWEMA) is in the wings. SIPWEMA is a time-bound initiative of 12 pioneering countries in North, West, Central, East and Southern Africa, the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Integrated Pest Management (SP-IPM), FAO Agriculture Departmental Group of the Regional Office for Africa (FAORAFA), Pan-African Striga Control Network (PASCON), Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (AU/SAFGRAD) program of the African Union, and the Global IPM Facility. These key partners are dedicated to break isolation barriers amongst themselves to bring benefits of prior research and outreach activities to reduce staggering cereal and legume food deficits caused by parasitic weed infestations in the production systems.

The parasitic weed problem is intimately associated with changes in intensity of land use as a result of demographic pressure and subsequent increase in the demand for food production. This intensification is reflected in greater use of cereal mono-cropping with little fallow to non-host crops. As a consequence, the extent and intensity of parasitic weed infestation have rapidly increased and become threats to food production. Over the years, research has provided sound knowledge-base on cropping systems and crop and land management practices that increase food production while repressing parasitic weeds, but has so far had limited impact at the farm level. Drastic changes in the production practices are therefore required to reduce losses by means friendly to human health and the environment. To be sustainable, parasitic weed management practices must improve crop yield, improve soil fertility and be acceptable to farmers even in the absence of parasitic weed infestation. Towards this end, the SIPWEMA focus is local capacity building to ensure rapid spread and farmer adoption of parasitic weed management practices Africa-wide.

SIPWEMA is building on several prior and on-going initiatives by national governments, sub-regional networks and research organizations to address a common challenge: develop a field program that promotes inclusive partnerships, and focuses on action by the participating countries to increase stakeholder ownership of processes and results and produce impact at the community level. Therefore, SIPWEMA provides a coordinated platform for the key players to harmonize approaches, exchange of information, expertise, technical resources, and extrapolate proven results and experiences to new locations. The activities will be driven by technical innovation, cohesive partnerships, and change in attitude across a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Over six years SIPWEMA will allow African women and men farmers in 28 countries to benefit from reduced pest load, increased capacity to manage cereal-legume production systems for higher and stable productivity and profitability, and foster healthy production environments, while significantly contributing to food security Community-based feedback mechanisms will permit to re-define the research-for-development agenda in a bottom-up manner to respond to emerging issues from the farmers' field experiences, and strengthen international collaboration. The project's exit strategy centers on capacity-building to increase scientific literacy in farming communities, and promote participatory extension to scale out/up gains and benefits.

Dr. Braima James,
Coordinator, Systemwide Program on Integrated Pest Management (SP-IPM)
IITA, Cotonou, Benin
B.James@cgiar.org

BRITISH CROP PROTECTION COUNCIL (BCPC) EVENTS

Slugs and snails: a symposium concerning the biology, damaging effects to plants, animals and man, and management of these gastropod pests, organized by BCPC and the Malacological Society, was held recently at Canterbury, UK. Contributors were from a wide range of countries. A brief account of the symposium is given on the BCPC web-site (www.bcpc.org). The full proceedings are now available for purchase from BCPC as a 324-page book. Future BCPC events of potential interest to IAPPS Members, also detailed on the BCPC web-site, include:

Dr. Keith Brent,
IAPPS Coordinator for Europe
techsec@bcpc.org

The IAPPS Newsletter is published by the International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences and distributed in Crop Protection to members and other subscribers. Crop Protection, published by Elsevier, is the Official Journal of IAPPS.

IAPPS Mission: to provide a global forum for the purpose of identifying, evaluating, integrating, and promoting plant protection concepts, technologies, and policies that are economically, environmentally, and socially acceptable.

It seeks to provide a global umbrella for the plant protection sciences to facilitate and promote the application of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to a the world's crop and forest ecosystems.

Membership Information: IAPPS has four classes of membership (individual, affiliate, associate, and corporate) which are described here.

The IAPPS Newsletter welcomes news, letters, and other items of interest from individuals and organizations. Address correspondence and information to:

Dr. Manuele Tamo, Editor
IAPPS Newsletter
Biological Control Center for Africa, IITA-Benin
08 B.P. 0932 Tri Postal, Cotonou, Republic of Benin
E-mail: m.tamo@cgiar.org