APAARI recently trained officials from the Bangladesh Gov. on Pest Risk Analysis (PRA): Risk Assessment, Risk Communication, and Risk Management from 3rd to 9th Aug 2021 supported by USAID and USDA. The training briefed participants on export compliances and policies

Brief report on PRA training

APAARI organized a virtual training on Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) in Bangladesh: Risk Assessment, Risk Communication and Risk Management from 2nd to 9th August 2021 funded by USDA and USAID. Pest risk analysis is a developing and dynamic field playing an important role in agricultural innovation processes. It informs decisions for regulatory plant protection, from domestic activities such as prioritizing pests for surveillance to make quarantine decisions regarding the importation of products.

42 participants, including senior officials from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) of the Ministry of Agriculture, university professors, scientists from research institutes and seed industry, took part in the 8-days long training session on plant health risk analysis in agricultural import-export. The training involved the active participation of the trainees in the group discussions and case-study based activities.

The key speakers were Mr. Md Asadullah (Director General of DAE), Mr. Anwar Hossain (Director, Plant Quarantine Wing), Dr. Ravi Khetarpal (Executive Secretary, APAARI), Ms. Rebecca Robinson (Feed the Future (FTF) Team Leader and Deputy Office Director, USAID), Mr. Mark Rosman (Agricultural Attaché, USDA/FAS Dhaka) and Ms. Mary Parrish (USDA).

The training was coordinated and facilitated by Dr. KS Varaprasad (Senior Consultant), Dr. Ahsan Ullah (Coordinator) and Ms. Sasireka Rajendran, (Project Manager) from APAARI. Dr. Michael Hennessey and Dr. Lloyd Garcia, consultants from the USA were the technical coordinators for the PRA training. Functional capacity aspects of the training were blended into the technical training based on the common framework developed by the Tropical Agriculture Platform (TAP) and implemented by Ms. Martina Spisiakova (Knowledge Management Coordinator) and Ms. Sasireka Rajendran (Project Manager) from APAARI. Group discussions of the training were moderated by Dr. Varaprasad, Dr. Ahsan Ullah, Dr. Ramesh Babu (former Dean, Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India), Dr. Rishi Tyagi (APCoAB Coordinator, APAARI), Dr. Norah Omot (Policy Coordinator, APAARI), and Dr. Rameash (Principal Scientist, Central Institute for Cotton Research, India).