COLEAD joins the CABI BioProtection portal as an associate

As part of its mission to promote the development of sustainable agriculture, COLEAD has joined the CABI BioProtection portal. As a not-for-profit organisation, COLEAD works to share knowledge and expertise in the agri-food sector in developing countries, particularly in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific regions. This collaboration with CABI underlines a shared commitment to promoting and developing bioprotection on a global scale and to improving sustainable agricultural practices. It is part of a wider collaboration initiated in 2020 between COLEAD and CABI that aims to strengthen food security in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, with a focus on improving sanitary and phytosanitary practices at local, national and regional levels.

This partnership with the CABI BioProtection portal aims to increase its visibility among service providers, agricultural advisors and producers forming part of the COLEAD network, encouraging them in particular to explore the biocontrol products and biopesticides available and to access the educational content available in order to encourage the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies.

The importance of the CABI COLEAD collaboration

This partnership will enable the exchange of expertise and knowledge, by linking the resources of the CABI bioprotection portal to COLEAD’s educational content and online library, which includes COLEAD’s sustainable agricultural production guides, pest identification sheets and crop protection guides. In addition, the portal will be linked to COLEAD’s Crop protection database, which provides valuable resources for producers wishing to meet stringent market standards. This database provides information on the use of plant protection products, such as maximum residue limits (MRLs), in line with European Union (EU) and CODEX standards. The aim of the collaboration is to encourage users to make use of these resources, to enrich the content of the portal and to enable users to make better-informed decisions.

Supporting sustainable pest management

The CABI BioProtection portal is an innovative tool for sustainable pest management, helping advisors and producers to identify and correctly apply biocontrol products and biopesticides. It also supports Integrated Pest Management (IPM) by offering biocontrol solutions that can be integrated into IPM programmes.

COLEAD’s mission to facilitate actions that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) resonates fully with the CABI BioProtection portal’s direct support for the agricultural sector. The common objective is to promote sustainable solutions for crop protection.

This new concrete activity within the CABI COLEAD partnership marks an important step in the global effort to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices, and in particular those that are more respectful of the environment.