“We will maintain contacts with CPAC and follow up the work of the workshop participants back home, depending on the eventual terms of the MOU,” said Thierry Mercier, Director of ANSES who led the team of workshop facilitators from the institute. He said evaluating and approving pesticides for distribution is a scientific endeavour that requires that the right professionals be contacted in the event of any difficulty. He said through the network of pesticide management professionals to be set up, frontline staff in various CEMAC countries that run into difficulty could always contact them through CPAC. He cautioned that approving pesticides for use must be traceable so that in the event of any problem, it can easily be found out where it came from. He expressed confidence that the participants will perform well in the field, given what their “good background” in pesticide management.
“If all CPAC member countries set up pesticide management committees like Chad and Cameroon have done, then, the sub region will begin to move forward. We now look forward to serious registration of pesticides to begin all over the sub region. After having learnt about the French and Israeli models of registration, we think our output will be much better,” said Brahim Marie-Honorine, a Central African Republic participant. Prior to the workshop, Chad had already been using registered pesticides through its membership of the organisation of Sahelian states, explained Temwa Aggee, one of the participants from Chad. So far he added, more than 120 pesticides have been registered for use in the country while many other hazardous and sub standard chemicals were kept out. He sees the imminent signing of a Memorandum Of Understanding between CPAC countries and ANSES as a double blessing for his country.
