Armillaria root rot threatens Cameroon's Penja pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

Penja pepper (Piper nigrum) produced in Cameroon has long been recognized for its exceptional organoleptic quality. The pepper vine is grown using a support tree (Spondias mombin) in Cameroon. A root disease is associated with plant deaths in both plants. The disease symptoms are characterized by collar cracking and gummosis and the disease was tentatively identified as Armillaria root rot. In this work the extent of the problem was characterized by surveying 35 farms in Cameroon. Samples were taken from diseased support trees and pepper vines. Support trees exhibiting typical symptoms were found in approximately one third of the surveyed farms. In these farms, disease incidence and Pepper vine mortality ranged from 1.3 to 50% and 1.2 to 87.7%, respectively. Analysis of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) locus suggested that the isolates collected from S. mombin and P. nigrum are most likely, which is a first for both hosts, represented by Armillaria camerunensis (Henn.) Volk & Burdsall, a fungus previously associated with declining cacao trees in Cameroon. Given the increasing demand for Penja pepper and the great damaging potential of this root rot, research on management strategies should be prioritized

Armillaria root rot threatens Cameroon’s Penja pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

Penja pepper (Piper nigrum) produced in Cameroon has long been recognized for its exceptional organoleptic quality. The pepper vine is grown using a support tree (Spondias mombin) in Cameroon. A root disease is associated with plant deaths in both plants. The disease symptoms are characterized by collar cracking and gummosis and the disease was tentatively identified as Armillaria root rot. In this work the extent of the problem was characterized by surveying 35 farms in Cameroon. Samples were taken from diseased support trees and pepper vines. Support trees exhibiting typical symptoms were found in approximately one third of the surveyed farms. In these farms, disease incidence and Pepper vine mortality ranged from 1.3 to 50% and 1.2 to 87.7%, respectively. Analysis of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) locus suggested that the isolates collected from S. mombin and P. nigrum are most likely, which is a first for both hosts, represented by Armillaria camerunensis (Henn.) Volk & Burdsall, a fungus previously associated with declining cacao trees in Cameroon. Given the increasing demand for Penja pepper and the great damaging potential of this root rot, research on management strategies should be prioritized.CIRAD, IRAD, the University of Pretoria and through the “Debt reduction-development contract (C2D) France Cameroon” Poivre de Penja project.https://link.springer.com/journal/40858am2021BiochemistryForestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)GeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil Scienc

Échapper au piège "qualité–exclusion" dans les indications géographiques : réflexions sur le cas du poivre de Penja

La protection des indications géographiques (IG) est considérée dans les pays en développement comme une façon de valoriser les produits d'origine et de renforcer les systèmes agroalimentaires localisés en améliorant l'accès au marché des petits producteurs. La démarche d'enregistrement des IG va au-delà de la lutte contre les usurpations des noms géographiques et peut contribuer à modifier le fonctionnement de la filière. En effet, l'enregistrement suppose l'accord des producteurs sur un cahier des charges qui définit les caractéristiques-clés du produit et du processus de production et délimite la zone de production. Cependant, les effets positifs de la protection sont souvent menacés, en particulier dans les pays du Sud, par ce que nous appelons le " piège qualité–exclusion " : la recherche d'une meilleure qualité du produit peut provoquer l'exclusion des producteurs les plus faibles ; à l'inverse, éviter toute exclusion peut conduire à un cahier des charges trop vague ou un système de contrôle trop laxiste, ce qui rendra l'IG inefficace. Nous analysons comment ce dilemme peut être géré pour améliorer l'accès des petits producteurs au marché en examinant le cas du poivre de Penja (Cameroun), enregistré en 2013 et devenu la première IG protégée dans la zone de l'Organisation africaine de la propriété intellectuelle (OAPI). Nos résultats montrent que pour garder tant l'équité que l'efficacité de la protection des IG, il est nécessaire d'accompagner la protection juridique par des actions et des politiques appropriées. Les aspects critiques sont l'élaboration d'un cahier des charges et d'un système de contrôle rigoureux, mais aussi capables de minimiser les règles difficiles à atteindre, et la fourniture de services capables de favoriser l'accès aux IG des producteurs les plus faibles. (Résumé d'auteur

The legal construction of geographical indications in Africa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI am indebted to Professor Abbe Brown, Professor James Gathii and Dr Bolanle Adebola, for their invaluablecomments on draft versions of this paper. I also appreciate the blind reviewer's brilliant comments, which helped toenrich the paper. I presented different draft versions of the paper at the African International Economic Law Network Conference (2019), the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research inIntellectual Property Conference (2019) and Loyola University of Chicago School of Law (2019). I am grateful toparticipants for their generous comments. All errors remain my own.Peer reviewedPublisher PD