East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 27th October, 2023: A two-day workshop to validate the Draft East African Community Food and Nutrition Security Bulletin is currently underway in Kampala, Uganda.
In remarks read on his behalf by the Principal Agricultural Economist, Mr. Fahari Marwa, at the opening session of the workshop, EAC Secretary General Hon. (Dr.) Peter Mathuki, said that the draft regional FNS bulletin specifically gives updates on the regional food security and nutrition status through analysis of food types and availability together with people’s access to quality food supplies within Partner States during the review period.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 24th October, 2023: Limited knowledge and information on aflatoxin by stakeholders along the value chain has been identified as one of the major factors inhibiting aflatoxin prevention and control within the East African Community.
The inability by most farmers to easily access appropriate technologies for aflatoxin mitigation and inadequate private sector participation in aflatoxin management are also significant contributing factors to efforts to contain aflatoxin contamination in the region.
Also singled out as contributing to the aflatoxin menace is insufficient baseline data on aflatoxin to enable mapping of aflatoxin “hot spot” areas in all the Partner States and porous borders that ease the flow of contaminated grains across the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 15th June, 2023: The East African Community (EAC) has launched a campaign aimed at creating awareness on the agri-export trade opportunities that have been created through the EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP).
Through the campaign, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agricultural value chain, co-operatives and farmers, as well as government entities in the EAC will access information and tools on agri-export trade.
Speaking at the 14th June, 2023 launch of the campaign, Ms. Flavia Busingye, the Acting Director of Customs at the EAC Secretariat, said that MARKUP had created numerous trade opportunities for agri-SMEs in the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 8th March, 2023:The East African Community (EAC) capacity building workshop on ‘Dossier Evaluation and Basic Risk Assessment’ for regulators from Partner States is currently underway in Kigali, Rwanda.
The four-day workshop from 6th -9th March, 2023 is being attended by members of the EAC Technical Working Group (TWG) on Pesticides and regulators responsible for evaluation of applications for registration of pesticides, evaluation of pesticide dossiers, risk assessment of pesticides and evaluation of efficacy trial reports. The regulators from Ghana and Ethiopia are also in attendance for benchmarking purposes.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 3rdDecember, 2022: The EAC Secretary General Hon. (Dr.) Peter Mathuki has handed over laboratory equipment and consumables to the Focal Points of the EAC Affairs Ministries on behalf of National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) in the Partner States under an EAC-GIZ project called “Improvement of Regional Trade with Seed Potatoes in Eastern Africa.”
The aim of the project is to provide framework conditions for the development of trade in seed potatoes through support to development of regional strategies and action plans, capacity development of NPPOs in SPS measure as well as development and harmonization of regional seed potato standards.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 22nd March, 2022: The 15th EAC Sectoral Council on Agriculture and Food Security (SCAFS) is currently underway at the Four Points by Sheraton in Dar es salaam, Tanzania.
The meeting started on Monday, 21st March 2022, with the Session of Senior Officials which will end on Wednesday, 23rd March, 2022. The Coordination Committee or the Session of Permanent/Principal/Under Secretaries is slated for Thursday, 24th March, 2022 and the Ministerial session on Friday, 25th March, 2022.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 11th March, 2022: The East African Community makes huge post-harvest losses in food products annually in the range of 30% in cereals, 50% in roots & tubers, and up to 70% in fruits and vegetables.
The EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of the Productive and Social Sectors, Hon. Christophe Bazivamo, said that Partner States could reverse this situation through deployment of better storage and processing technologies and enhanced packaging techniques can greatly contribute to the regional development objectives; ensure food security and result in higher earnings for farmers and SMEs.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 2nd January, 2022: The 1st series of East African Community Capacity Building Sessions for Plant Health Inspectors on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to operationalize Pest Risk Analysis in the region concluded at Mutukula One Stop Border Post (OSBP) located on the Uganda/Tanzania border.
The five capacity building workshops conducted at the OSBPs of Namanga (Kenya/Tanzania), Malaba (Kenya/Uganda), Kabanga-Kobero (Tanzania/Burundi), Rusumo (Tanzania/Rwanda) and Mutukula (Tanzania/Uganda) were aimed at creating awareness amongst plant health inspectors on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for inspecting maize, beans and rice for pests of phytosanitary importance in the EAC.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 27th January, 2022: The East African Community Secretariat has embarked on capacity building on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for plant health inspectors at its One-Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) to ensure that the region is protected from threats of pest infestation against key agricultural commodities.
The SOPs were developed to operationalize the Pest Risk Analysis (PRAs) for maize, beans and rice that are the most widely traded in the region.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 26th June, 2021: The 14th Meeting of the Sectoral Council on Agriculture and Food Security (SCAFS) came to a close in Arusha, Tanzania on 25th June, 2021.
Chairing the Ministerial Session, Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives, Republic of Kenya, Mr. Lawrence Angolo Omuhaka, noted the urgent need for the region to implement harmonized policies and to operationalize regional instruments in order to guarantee sustainable agricultural production, trade in commodities and to attain sustainable regional food and nutrition security.
