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 standardised norms developed by the International Plant Protection Convention (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.
"This is challenging work with high stakes. Each year an estimated 10-16 percent of our global harvest is lost to plant pests. A loss estimated at $220 billion", FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation) Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo said at the opening of this year's IPPC meeting in Rome.
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.
New measures adopted last month 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 norms cover cold treatment techniques that freeze and kill pests as well as those that raise temperature past their survival threshold, the press release said.
This can be achieved by submerging them in extremely hot water or exposing them to super-heated steam (for commodities vulnerable to drying out, such as fruits, vegetables or flowers-bulbs) or dry heat (ideal for low moisture-content items such as seeds or grain).
Another measure is revised standard for sanitation of wood packing materials. An existing standard, known as ISPM-15, was updated to include the use of sulphuryl fluoride, a gas insecticide, and new generation heating technologies that employ microwave and radio frequency waves to generate pest killing temperatures deep inside wood products.
Also, an expanded standard on the use of heat vapour to kill Oriental Fruit Flies. The highly destructive, fruit-attacking Bactrocera dorsalis originated in Asia but has now spread to at least 65 countries. Its presence in Africa, where it first appeared in 2003, costs the continent an estimated $2 billion in annual losses due to fruit export bans. The control technique outlined under the new measure kills 99.98 percent of the bug's eggs and larvae when used correctly. _Joyce Namutebi, The New Vision
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