About Us

West Africa Regional Consortium of IPM Excellence (2004-2009)

The West Africa Regional Consortium of IPM Excellence project regionalizes past activities and successes in Mali.  Faculty from Virginia Tech, University of California-Davis, Purdue University and Fort Valley State University are collaborating with stakeholders from five West African countries in a project featuring Integrated Pest Management (IPM) research on a variety of commodities. The West African partners include various research, extension, and governmental agencies in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mali and Senegal. The main features of this project are: 1) Development of a regional pest management system for whitefly pests as they affect production of a variety of crops (tomatoes, potatoes, cotton, etc.) grown in the West African region. 2) Development and implementation of IPM strategies for viral diseases of tomato based on improved understanding of pathogen ecology and biology in West Africa. 3) Development of information on the influence of agroecosystem biodiversity on plant virus levels and, 4) Development a regional quality assurance program addressing pesticide safety education and pesticide residue chemistry training. This web site promotes networking and communication between and within the pesticide residue chemists and pesticide safety educators in West Africa within the context of a quality assurance program. 

Historical Background