Rome, Italy
April 20, 2007
The hi-tech and often baffling
field of nuclear technology may seem a world away from the
poorest developing world farmers and families struggling to make
a dollar a day.
Yet nuclear methods applied to agriculture are enabling millions
of these farmers to grow more crops and rear healthier
livestock. Since most of the world's 854 million hungry people
live in rural areas where agriculture is the main livelihood,
such technology can have a direct impact on poverty and hunger.
In addition, despite public concern over nuclear technology,
such methods have passed rigorous safety checks – in fact they
increase the safety of food while benefiting the environment.
Since 1964, FAO and the
International Atomic Energy Agency have harnessed such
technology to help promote food security, through the
Vienna-based Joint FAO/IAEA Programme.
“Nuclear technology defies the senses; people cannot touch,
smell or feel the material, and this often evokes a fear of such
methods,” says Gabriele Voigt, Director of the Agency’s
Laboratories at Seibersdorf, outside Vienna, a nerve-centre of
research and training.
“The irony is that such technology can make food safer and
benefit the environment, while ensuring the hungriest are fed.
We’re opening a magic door and the positive impacts are clear.”
Creating better crops
For example, scientists use a method called irradiation to
create crop varieties that are more disease-resistant and grow
better in poor soils, a massive benefit to countries across
drought-prone Africa, where the poorest farmers try to survive
on the most marginal lands.
Food also can be made safer through irradiation, which destroys
bacteria such as E.coli and salmonella in foods, while leaving
no radioactive traces. The safety and effectiveness of this
method has been declared by the Codex Alimentarius Commission,
an international standards body administered by FAO and the
World Health Organization, which comprises government-designated
experts.
Irradiation as a post-harvest treatment for horticultural
products also benefits the environment – it provides a safer
alternative to methyl bromide, which the large majority of
countries have agreed to phase out by 2010 due to its harmful
impact on the ozone layer.
Nuclear techniques can also be used to detect excessive
pesticide or veterinary drug residues in food and monitor
implementation of good agricultural and veterinary practices.
There are numerous other areas where nuclear technology helps
the environment. For example, one technique suppresses, or in
some situations even eradicates, insect pests by the systematic
release of sterilized males of the species – a type of birth
control. This reduces the need for chemical pesticides that can
harm other organisms and soils. Another example involves a
nuclear technique that measures water storage and tracks water
and nutrients in soil, reducing wastage of these valuable
commodities.
Two agencies better than one
Qu Liang, Director of the Joint Programme, says: “This is one of
the best examples of effective cooperation between two UN
agencies, with a direct combination of agricultural expertise
and nuclear science.
“In its simplest terms, FAO can provide practical information
from the field, for example reporting the effects of soil
erosion on crops and ultimately the local people, and the IAEA
can apply the scientific expertise on how we might address it.”
The Joint FAO/IAEA Programme works with member countries in
researching and introducing new crop varieties, pest treatments
or food-testing methods among other things.
It also trains scientists from developing countries each year at
its lab at Seibersdorf, near Vienna, who then return to their
countries to put appropriate nuclear methods into practice.
Mr Liang adds: “We investigate, give advice, guidance and
training to international scientists, and help coordinate early
efforts to implement work. But it is for countries to take up
these projects and maintain them well into the future.
“We can generate a lot of interest and political will by showing
the potential economic benefits, which helps persuade
governments to invest in it.” |
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