Promoting smallholder access to fungal biopesticides through Public Private Partnerships in East Africa (PROSAFE) funded by BioInnovate Africa Phase I

The horticultural sub-sector in East Africa is rapidly expanding, with growing demand for safe foods by sensitive lucrative export markets in the EU and the regional African markets. This has been accompanied by the development of regional food safety standards for a wide range of crops, which could potentially become a non-tariff barrier to trade. This necessitates a rapid growth in availability and access to safer pest management options such as biopesticides to keep up with grower needs. Hence, the PROSAFE project will build on icipe’s strong Public-Private-Partnership approach on biopesticides development, commercialization and promote their use as components of integrated pest management strategies in East Africa. The overall objective of this project is to enhance availability, access of potent biopesticides for small-holder growers for the integrated management of crop pests for food and nutritional security in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania through innovative product development, commercialization and promotion. The project will establish a strong network of R4D institutions and private sector partners for research on biopesticides, sensitize policy makers on the importance of biopesticide, capacity building of stakeholders at all levels and establishing small scale biopesticide production industries in East Africa.

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