GLOBAL – The Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) and the Rainforest Alliance , an international organization championing for sustainable agriculture, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on ways to help smallholder farmers around the world grow safer and higher quality food and increase their incomes in the process, through more sustainable agricultural practices.

CABI is an international not-for-profit organization that deals in development and research projects, scientific publishing and microbial services to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.

With this partnership, producers will benefit from the exchange between knowledge and practice that the two strategic partners will bring towards reducing the impact of high-risk plant protection products like chemical pesticides, in production in favour of safer-to-use and sustainable biological controls.

Other elements of shared working, as outlined in the MoU, include creating training and digital learning products to support capacity building of agricultural service providers and supporting farmers to comply with voluntary crop production standards to deliver safer, environmentally friendly produce to higher value markets.

“With this partnership, we are certain we can advance our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach more effectively and provide concrete tools for producers to start making the transition to a more regenerative agriculture, by combining the broad reach of our network and our field experience, with CABI’s extensive knowledge base,” said Dr Juliana Jaramillo, Lead Regenerative Agriculture, at the Rainforest Alliance.

CABI BioProtection Portal

The Rainforest Alliance joins Nespresso, an operating unit of the Nestle group and Applied Insect Science (APIS), a research facility on biopesticide products, in sponsoring the CABI BioProtection Portal. This free web-based tool enables growers and agricultural advisors to discover information about registered biocontrol and biopesticide products available globally.

Their sponsorship will see them adding their expertise in helping frontline communities build thriving rural economies rooted in more sustainable growing practices and forest stewardship.

“CABI is delighted to be working in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. Our shared expertise in promoting sustainable agricultural practices along the food value chain will further help to improve rural livelihoods for millions of smallholder farmers around the world,” said Dr Ulrich Kuhlmann, Executive Director, Global Operations at CABI.

He added that the organization’s joint endeavours will be carried out while being mindful of the need to protect the earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems amid the myriad of challenges posed by climate change.

One example of CABI’s work to help promote more environmentally friendly pest control is the tackling of crop-destroying locusts and grasshoppers in Africa.  In Somalia, for instance, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized the spraying of CABI-created biological control product Green Muscle over more than 100,000 hectares, hence no chemical pesticides were used.

The Rainforest Alliance, in turn has provided training workshops to more than 100,000 farmers in South Asia aimed at them adopting sustainable agricultural methods and improving farm management, with advice and guidance on manual and natural pest control techniques.

This not only serves to reduce the use of expensive and harsh agrochemicals but lead to healthier soils and better yields over the long term.

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