application of nuclear techniques in food and...

Atoms for Food and Agriculture: Meeting the Challenge

Application of Nuclear Techniques

in Food and Agriculture

Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of

Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture

Corporate Mission

Atomic energy for

peace, health and

prosperity

Sustainable agricultural

development, improved

nutrition and food security

to contribute to sustainable

food security and safety by

use of nuclear techniques

and biotechnology

Our Goals:

• Food Security

• Food Safety

• Sustainable Agriculture

Application in Food and Agriculture

Nuclear

Techniques

Insect Pest Control

by Sterile Insect Techniques

Plant Breeding & Genetics

by Mutation Techniques

Animal Production & Health

by RIA, ELISA, PCR, etc.

Soil & Water Management

& Crop Nutrition

by Isotopic and Nuclear Techniques

Food & Environmental

Protection

by Food Irradiation and Radio-

analytical Techniques

1. Crop improvement by mutation techniques

• Variation is the source of evolution

• Spontaneous mutation rate is 1×10-8 ~ 1×10-5

• Radiation can cause genetic changes in living organisms

and increase mutation rate up to 1×10-5 ~ 1×10-2

• Induced mutation is useful for crop improvement

• Induced mutants are not GMOs, as there is no

introduction of foreign hereditary material into induced

mutants

Technical basis

- Higher yielding

- Disease-resistance

- Well-adapted

- Better nutrition

Mutant cultivars

Crop improvement by mutation techniques

no mutation

negative mutation

- Improving crop cultivars

- Enhancing biodiversity

- Increasing farmer’s income

Mutation techniques

MUTANT VARIETIES MUTANT VARIETIES

Cereals 1206

Flowers 454

Legumes 203

Oil crops 198

Others 611

Total Number : 2672

Plant Species : 170

(2006)

Sources: FAO/IAEA Mutant Varieties Database

Crop improvement by mutation techniques

The impact of mutation induction in crop improvement is

measured in millions of ha and billions of $

Zhefu 802 (rice) 10.6 million ha

China

Baden-

Wurttemberg

& Bavaria

VND95-20 (rice) 280,000 ha

Vietnam

Saarland

Diamant (barley) 2.86 million ha

Europe

TAG24 (groundnut) 3 million ha

India

Thuringia

Schleswig-

Holstein

VND99-3

High quality for export

Short duration (100 days)

3 rice harvests per year in

the Mekong Delta

8 new high quality rice

mutant varieties have been

developed and adopted by

farmers in Vietnam, where

rice export is one of their

main revenues.

VND95-20

High quality

Tolerance to salinity

Key rice variety for export

“National Prize of Science

and Technology of Viet

Nam 2005” for its

“significant socio-

economic contribution”

2. Soil-Water-Crop Nutrition Management

Water Soil

Crop Nutrition

Isotopic and nuclear

techniques

• Both stable and radioactive isotopes can be used as

tracers in soil and water management & crop nutrition.

• Isotopes are atoms with:

– the same chemical properties, but different atomic

weight (mass number).

– the same number of protons but different neutrons.

– different mass number (atomic weight).

• Isotopes can be either stable or radioactive

– stable isotopes: different masses (18O and 16O).

– radioactive isotopes: radioactive decay (32P).

Technical basis


31P

14N

32P

15N

31P

14N

13CO2

12CO2

13C

12C

18O 16O

31P

32P

13CO2

12CO2

16O

18O


• Enhance the efficient and sustainable use of soil-water-

nutrient resources.

• Quantify Biological Nitrogen Fixation.

• Minimize effects of soil erosion and degradation.

• Enhance water use efficiency by crops.

• Select drought and salt-tolerant crops.

• Evaluate effects of crop residue incorporation on soil

stabilization and fertility enhancement.

• Track and quantify off-site water (nutrients) losses beyond

the plant rooting zone.


12CO2 (99%)

13CO2 (1%)

Plants can be grouped according to 13C

discrimination

C3 plants: δδδδ 13C = -26

(rice, wheat, forest, vegetation) (maize, sorghum, sugarcane,

some tropical herbs)

C4 plants: δδδδ 13C = -12


FRN with precipitation (P)

Original soil level

Resulting soil level

Deposition site

137Cs > P

Erosion site 137Cs < P



� Soil conservation measures improved land productivity

and reduced soil erosion rates by 55-90% in Chile, China,

Morocco, Romania and Vietnam.

� Improved yield and revenue by 25-50% while reduced

water use by the same extent in Chile, Jordan, Syria and

Uzbekistan.

� 10-15 % increase in P utilization efficiency in Mexico and

Burkina Faso.

� 30% increase in BNF through improved soil and crop

management practices and genotype selection in Asia

and Africa.

Using isotopic and nuclear techniques, Agency supported

studies show that:

• Radiation is used to induce lethal mutations in chromosomes of insect pests to cause sterility.

• Sterile males are released into the wild where they compete with wild males for matings with wild females.

• SIT relies on:

– mass production of the target pest

– sterilization and shipment

– inundative releases mostly by air

– matings result in no offspring

• SIT integrated with other pest control methods is applied for suppression, containment, or even eradication.

3. Insect Pest Control by SIT

Technical basis

Gamma Radiation

No

Offspring

(BIRTH CONTROL)

3. Insect Pest Control by SIT

Sterile

Sterile Wild

Insect Pest Population Density

aerial release of sterile flies

ERADICATION

months

deployment of insecticide-

treated targets or traps

treatment of cattle with trypanocides

treatment of cattle with insecticides

Integrated Pest Management With SIT Component

Major Achievements

• In Chile, fruit and vegetable exports have climbed to US

$1.6 billion in 2005 as a result of fruit fly-free status.

• Medfly-free status in Mexico translates to annual savings

of US $2 billion in reduced crop losses and pesticide costs,

and access to export markets.

• In Zanzibar, eradication of tsetse and trypanosomiasis

resulted in very significant increases of meat and milk

production, as well as crop productivity

SIT developed and transferred to over 30 Member States with substantial socio-economic impact:

Exports of bell peppers and tomatoes

from Central America to the USA (2004-2006)

Fruit fly free areas (FFFA)

FFFA in progress

Overcoming phytosanitary trade barriers to facilitate access of high-value crops to lucrative export markets

TSETSE ERADICATION PROJECT ETHIOPIA

(2000 – 2006)

0

10

20

30

%

Soddo Dilla Arbaminch

Disease prevalence

Preintervention Intervention

60% reduction in

disease prevalence

Block-1

4. Animal Production & Health

• RIA is used to measure the presence of the reproductive

hormone progesterone through immunological definition

• Isotope I-125 is used as a label to enable the immunological

reaction to be assayed

• Disease diagnosis using molecular tools (PCR-ELISA)

• DNA assisted selection for productivity and disease resistance

• Production of safe standard reagents by irradiation

• Evaluation of locally available feeds to overcome nutritional

deficiencies

Technical basis

DNA-Assisted Selection

80 cm

Measure productivity Sample DNA

(blood, hair, milk)

Identify superior

genes

Develop nuclear-related

test for selection and breeding



Label with isotope e.g. 15N, 13C18

Feed to

livestock

Nutrients dispersed

throughout body

Tissue sampling to

assay isotope

distribution

Local

plant materials

Efficient Utilization of Locally Grown Feeds

Take blood

Analyze the result

Run ELISA

Protected

Vaccinate

Is this cow vaccinated?

Use of isotope related techniques

in disease management

Combat Bird Flu Combat Bird Flu

Reducing Health Risks Reducing Health Risks

through the early,

rapid and sensitive

serological and

molecular detection

(such as ELISA and

PCR)

• Diagnostic technologies developed and transferred to

more then 70 Member States

– Rinderpest, Brucellosis, FMD, CBPP, Newcastle Disease,

Trypanosomiasis

• Network for DNA analysis established in Asia

• Diagnostic Standards available for FMD, with other

diseases in pipeline

• Specific feeding regimes developed in more than 30

Member States

Major Achievements


Pan African Rinderpest Campaign

• IAEA was involved in the development and validation of

ELISA tests, the training of veterinarians and equipping

Member State laboratories

– Established diagnostic capacity

– Introduced epidemiology

– Sero-monitoring to verify vaccination coverage

– Surveillance to monitor outbreaks

– Epidemiological surveys to declare freedom of disease

• Rinderpest is today nearly eradicated worldwide!


5. Food and Environmental Protection

• Food irradiation is the treatment of food by ionizing

radiation

• Radiation at appropriate doses can kill harmful pests,

bacteria, or parasites, and extend shelf-life of foods.

• Isotopic techniques are employed to monitor foods for

contamination with agrochemicals

– optimizing sample preparation by radioisotopes

– detecting contaminant by electron capture detector

Technical basis

Several energy sources can be

used to irradiate food

• Gamma Rays

• Electron Beams

• X-rays

Food Irradiation

Codex General Standard

for Irradiated Foods

ENSURE FOOD HYGIENE

OVERCOME QUARANTINE

BARRIERS

FOOD SAFETY TRADE

MEAT SHRIMP

CHICKEN

GRAPES

MANGOS

ORANGES CUT FLOWERS SPICES

Application of Food Irradiation

• More than 60 countries permit the application of

irradiation in over 50 different foods

• An estimated 500,000 tons of food are irradiated

annually

• About 180 Cobalt-60 irradiation facilities and a

dozen electron beam (EB) machines are used to

treat foods worldwide

• More and more countries accept the use of

irradiation as a phytosanitary measure

Atoms for Food and Agriculture:

Meeting the Challenge

application of nuclear techniques in food and...

Documents