Boosting plant health and reducing losses on farm and during storage for sustainable growth in Africa (FNSSA)

Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:enhanced ability of agricultural actors in Africa to manage plant pest risks sustainably, contribute to the strengthening of food security while addressing climate and biodiversity challenges;agricultural actors identify and implement practices to prevent and reduce crop losses due to plant pests pre-harvest and during storage in Africa. Scope:Plant pests affecting crops in the field and/or harvests during storage are an important burden to food security, contributing to significant food losses in Africa. These can also affect internal markets and trade. It is thus crucial to tackle the impact of plant pests in an integrated manner, while ensuring this is done through technologies and practices fostering agricultural sustainability, resilience to climate change and safeguarding biodiversity.Proposals should:advance knowledge on biology, mechanism of disease, spread dynamics, and climate change impacts on key plant pests across different African agro-ecosystems, considering also climate change impacts;develop cost-effective, environmentally friendly methods, tools and strategies that are safe to consumers for the sustainable management of the most impactful plant pests in Africa, aiming to minimise crop losses both at pre-harvest and during storage of harvests;foster agroecological integrated pest management practices aiming at reducing the impact of plant pests;improve productivity and the quality of crop products in the African agricultural systems by reducing the impact of plant pests. Insects, weeds, fungi, bacteria, and viruses that can damage crops fall within the scope of this topic and are considered plant pests. Applicants are expected to explain and justify the choice of pest(s) in alignment with the proposal’s objectives and the topic’s expected outcomes.The actions funded under this topic are relevant to the EU policies related to EU Vision for Agricultu