French agronomy research centre Cirad will start a new training programme as part of the EU-funded EDES initiative to enhance food safety in exports from ACP countries.
“We are going to train 6,000 people in food safety in more than 35 countries,” said Didier Montet, co-ordinator of the group of 12 scientists at Cirad involved in the programme. “In April we will launch the programme to train the ACP trainers. About 20 per cent of this work will be in the private sector.”
Cirad is one of nine partners in the EDES consortium along with the Food & Environment Research Agency and the Natural Resources Institute in the UK, European-ACP liaison committee COLEACP and other organisations in France and Denmark.
The whole programme is funded to the tune of €29.5m and aims to support poverty reduction through economic empowerment during the five-year period 2010-2014.
