As the world marks the International Day of Plant Health, African countries have come together to discuss environmentally friendly ways to protect fruit and vegetable harvests from insect pests.
Morocco recently completed the construction of a new mass-rearing facility to apply the sterile insect technique (SIT) to protect citrus harvests, which play a significant role in the country's economy. The SIT is an environmentally friendly pest control method that involves sterilizing male insects using radiation, before releasing them to mate with wild females in target areas, resulting in fewer or no offspring. The new mass-rearing facility will eventually be capable of producing 130 million sterile Mediterranean fruit flies per week.
Sharing Sterile Insect Technique Experiences
To leverage this new infrastructure, a workshop on using the SIT for integrated pest management was held in Agadir, Morocco at the end of April under an IAEA technical cooperation project aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity to improve food security in Africa.
Experts from 16 African countries gathered to discuss and share experiences on implementing surveillance and suppression of fruit flies by integrating the SIT with other control methods. The workshop included lectures, visits to the Mediterranean fruit fly mass-rearing facility, the irradiation and the fly emergence and release facilities, and a visit to field operations where surveillance and SIT field activities are being implemented.
Minimizing Pesticides
Using SIT alongside other control methods provides the citrus industry with sustainable methods that minimize pesticide residues in fruit and preserve the agricultural landscape. The SIT both reduces pest infestations and enables farmers to improve the quality of citrus fruits planned for export to existing and new international markets.
Tephritid fruit flies are considered among the world's most notorious pests of horticultural crops, causing extensive direct and indirect damage. Due to the intensification of international fruit trade, the African continent is also highly vulnerable to alien invasive fruit fly species such as Bactrocera dorsalis which bring significant damage to mangoes - up to 90 per cent of the harvest can be lost depending on the location, cultivar and season.
"Most African Member States now face an enormous challenge due to the introduction of Bactrocera dorsalis in Africa in 2003, which closed many international markets and increased damage to fruit," said Rui Cardoso Pereira, entomologist at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture.
Strengthening Agricultural Systems in Africa
Citrus production areas where sterile Mediterranean fruit flies are released (Photo: R. Cardoso Pereira/FAO/IAEA)
One critical aspect of the IAEA support with SIT is managing pests that affect economically important crops. The countries participating in the workshop reported on pest surveillance and control activities, including SIT application, in their respective countries and explored how these techniques are harmonized using guidelines produced by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and IAEA. This includes guidelines on adult and larval surveillance, quality control of mass-produced insects as well as the International Standards on Phytosanitary Measures.
The IAEA is helping countries boost food security with its Atoms4Food initiative. The IAEA has joined forces with the FAO to help provide countries with ground-breaking solutions, such as SIT, to tackle growing hunger around the world.
