MEPs are calling for the Pesticides Initiative Programme (PIP) of the European-African-Caribbean-Pacific liaison committee (ColeACP) to be extended by two more years.

UK Lib Dem MEP Fiona Hall was in a delegation to Senegal last month, pictured, to see at first hand how the PIP is working. “This initiative is set to finish in June 2006,” said Hall. “But it needs to be extended and we need more time than initially foreseen.”

She added that PIP is a vital part of the continued support ACP growers need to meet EU market standards for their products.

Hall said she was impressed by the programmes’s achievements following visits to PDG Import-Export and Sepam. “With increased training, farmers deal better with their facilities and organise their work in a systematic way in order to comply with the regulations. This project also gives workers a better understanding of hygiene issues.”

The ACP secretariat is now lobbying the directorate general for development and EuropeAid, to extend the programme until 2008.

Since the programme became operational in 2002, PIP has grown to support some 50 per cent of all ACP volumes exported to the EU. There is the potential to grow this to 80 per cent, “but in order for the work that we have already started with several businesses to continue and achieve a result we need more time and budget,” said Valérie de Oliveira of the PIP management unit in Brussels.

More than 80 per cent of the partnership agreements that ColeACP has struck with firms were finalised only last year.

PIP is operational in 23 countries, works with 111 companies representing about 400,000 tonnes a year. Its activities involve 75,000 small producers and already it has undertaken the training of 80 local consultants to continue training and support once the PIP expires.