Global body adopts new measures to stop spread of plant pests

Each year an estimated 10-16 percent of the global harvest is lost to plant pests; an estimated $220 billion. This was a statement by FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo at the opening of this year's IPPC annual meeting in Rome. The International Plant Protection Convention, the body in charge of keeping global trade in plants and plant products safe has adopted several new phytosanitary standards aimed at preventing destructive agricultural and environmental pests from jumping borders and spreading internationally.

A press release issued from Rome on Wednesday said the standardized norms developed by the IPPC cover a range of strategies and techniques used to prevent the introduction and spread of plant diseases and pests to new environments, thereby avoiding their often-devastating impacts on biodiversity, food security and trade. Some $1.1 trillion worth of agricultural products are traded internationally each year, with food accounting for over 80 percent of that total, according to FAO data.

According to newvision.co.ug, new measures adopted this week by the IPPC's governing body, the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM), include standard on the use of various temperature treatments against agricultural pests. The standard aims at ensuring that such treatments are consistently and effectively used in different operational contexts. The norm covers cold treatment techniques that freeze and kill pests as well as those that raise temperatures past their survival threshold.