The Inter-States Pesticides Committee for Central Africa (CPAC) has gone into partnership with the African Centre for Research on Banana and Plantains (CARBAP) for the latter to ensure that all the chemicals used on the products are henceforth tested in the laboratory, off station and also on-farm for their control safety within the CEMAC sub-region. CPAC Director General, Catherine Azouyangu, and CARBAP's Director, Jean Daniel Ngou Ngoupayou, signed the partnership accord in Yaounde last Friday August 23 in the presence of the Representative of the CEMAC Commission, Malaika Ndoume Ngolo, and some heads of the diplomatic corps in the country.

Speaking during the ceremony, Jean Daniel Ngou Ngoupayou said banana and plantains are susceptible to disease attack and in the market there are chemical products that are used against the diseases which require testing to ascertain their safety to man and his environment. "Our partnership with CPAC is in order to ensure that all the chemicals that are used on the products will be tested by CARBAP so as to control the biological efficacy of the pesticides," he said. The two main crops, he noted, are currently facing low productivity. "We have about four or at most seven metric tonnes per hectare production by small-holder farmers whereas with effective pest control, we can go up to 30 or even 40 metric tonnes per hectare. Our aim is to ensure that small and large-scale farmers boost their productivity using all these chemicals in a safe manner. We want to avoid consumers' exposure to problems by consuming the end products," the CARBAP Director said.

According to Catherine Azouyangu, ensuring efficient pesticides control and ascertaining that the chemical products do not destroy man and the environment is a mission of CPAC given that it is in charge of pesticide regulation. The sub-regional institution, she said, will stop at nothing in taking the fight to an end so that the sanitation of agricultural production for the preservation of the environment and the health of local consumers, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of local agricultural produce on the international market, the raison d'être of CPAC, are attained. The partnership, she observed, gives CPAC the opportunity to have a pesticides experimentation centre that lives up to required standards of homologation.

Praising the partnership, Malaika Ndoume Ngolo said given the international status of CPAC, CEMAC cannot but encourage all forms of cooperation capable of advancing the socio-economic development of the sub-region.