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Radiation program takes on medflies
Annual losses around Mediterrenean Sea about $300 million
VIENNA, Austria (AP)--A radiation program jointly sponsored by the U.N. nuclear agency and the U.N. agriculture office is helping spare farmers in the Mediterranean basin from crop devastation inflicted by the medfly, officials said May 9.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, opening a weeklong conference on the issue, said its project with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is especially helping farmers in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
The agencies are helping farmers use radiation technology to make medflies sterile and stop them from breeding. Experts say annual losses from medfly destruction total an estimated $300 million in the region.
The female medfly attacks bell peppers and other ripening fruit and vegetables by piercing the skin and laying its eggs inside. When the maggots hatch, they feed off the pulp.
"After attempts to control the medfly using insecticides and bait sprays failed, the Middle Eastern countries turned to the IAEA and FAO for support," the Vienna-based nuclear agency said in a statement.
"A radiation technology known as the sterile insect technique is used to stop the medflies from breeding. In fly-rearing laboratories, medfly eggs are bathed in warm water--a process that kills the female embryos but doesn't harm the male embryos. In the pupal stage, the males are irradiated until sexually sterile. They are then released en masse in the Arava Valley on both sides of the Israeli and Jordanian borders."
As many as 15 million sterile male medflies are released each week, the agency said, crediting the program for crippling the region's medfly population and dramatically reducing local farmers' reliance on expensive and harmful pesticides.
The IAEA and the FAO began setting up pilot projects and supplying sterile male medflies to Israel and Jordan in 1998. The Palestinian Authority joined the partnership a year later, the nuclear agency said.
Date: 5/26/05
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