IAEA Helps Mauritius Become an African Training Hub Against Fruit Pests
Reduit, Mauritius
2016/18
Shaukat Abdulrazak, Director of the Africa Division, IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation, and Mahen Kumar Seeruttun, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security of Mauritius, at the inauguration ceremony for an irradiator in Reduit, Mauritius. (Photo: L. Viegas Assumpcao/IAEA)
A new irradiator inaugurated in Mauritius today will help the island nation step up its fight against fruit flies threatening valuable crops and also support other African nations in controlling insect pests causing major economic losses to farmers.
Partly funded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the EUR 238,000 machine will enable Mauritius to more than double its capacity to use the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) - a kind of birth control for such pests - to suppress fruit flies.
