RSS Feeds and Podcasts
2 December 2008
TBD
IAEA says nuclear technologies can improve crop varieties
02/12/2008
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, is calling for increased investment in a plant breeding technique that could reduce hunger.
Here's how it works --IAEA scientists use radiation to produce improved high-yielding plants that adapt to harsh climate conditions such as drought or flood, or that are resistant to certain diseases and insect pests. Called mutation induction, the technique is safe, proven and cost-effective. It has been in use since the 1920s. We hear more about this technique from Pierre Lagoda, Head of the Plant Breeding Unit at the IAEA's laboratories, who was interviewed by Angela Lieker in Vienna:
Angela: The International Atomic Energy Agency is calling for increased investment in a plant-breeding technique that could pull millions of people out of the hunger and poverty trap. At the agency's laboratory in Austria, plant breeders are using nuclear technology to improve crop varieties. Pierre Lagoda is the head of the IAEA's plant breeding and genetic section.
Lagoda: For the moment, we are focusing on different very well known crops. Perhaps you know cassava. Cassava is a tropical crop which is called also the poor man's crop. Why? Because it is used in food crisis and it is growing on soils that other crops would not thrive on. And we work on banana, cooking banana, banana and plantain. And we work on rice. So these are the so-called model crops we are working on in our labs.
Angela: IAEA scientists use radiation to induce mutation in seeds and plants. This speeds up a natural process that can take millions of years. So the aim is to give Mother Nature a helping hand to produce crops that are tolerant to harsh conditions, resistant to diseases, more nutritious, or have better yields.
Lagoda: In Viet Nam, in the Mekong Delta, we had a project which we successfully developed with our Vietnamese counterparts on a rice that could be harvested three times a year. Normally from putting the seed in the ground to harvesting, you have to wait from 120 to 150 days. And with this crop, we could reduce that period of time to 100 days so that the farmer could have three harvests in a year compared to two harvests. Imagine what this means first in common also for the food security. SEGUE Asia is the continent that has fully implemented this too. I think it is due to the fact that the pragmatic issues of mutation induction are very well integrated into the social structure of these countries. China is very active in this respect, because mutation induction is a very solid and robust technology that has been developed with pragmatic aims and the difficulties in mutation induction using for breeding is actually the selection process, so if you don't have a good selection methodology then mutation induction will be very cumbersome, but in these countries what is very proficient and efficient is to use the human factor. So if you have many people that go through a field selecting from hundred of thousands of individuals' a mutant then you will be very effective and this is what is mainly needed as to have people going through the field and finding the mutant.
Angela: Today this technology is being used in some 10 countries worldwide. And close to 3,000 crop varieties from 170 different plant species have been released. These crops provide food as well as economic benefits for farmers and consumers, especially in developing countries.
This is Angela Leiker reporting from Vienna, Austria.
Here's how it works --IAEA scientists use radiation to produce improved high-yielding plants that adapt to harsh climate conditions such as drought or flood, or that are resistant to certain diseases and insect pests. Called mutation induction, the technique is safe, proven and cost-effective. It has been in use since the 1920s. We hear more about this technique from Pierre Lagoda, Head of the Plant Breeding Unit at the IAEA's laboratories, who was interviewed by Angela Lieker in Vienna:
Angela: The International Atomic Energy Agency is calling for increased investment in a plant-breeding technique that could pull millions of people out of the hunger and poverty trap. At the agency's laboratory in Austria, plant breeders are using nuclear technology to improve crop varieties. Pierre Lagoda is the head of the IAEA's plant breeding and genetic section.
Lagoda: For the moment, we are focusing on different very well known crops. Perhaps you know cassava. Cassava is a tropical crop which is called also the poor man's crop. Why? Because it is used in food crisis and it is growing on soils that other crops would not thrive on. And we work on banana, cooking banana, banana and plantain. And we work on rice. So these are the so-called model crops we are working on in our labs.
Angela: IAEA scientists use radiation to induce mutation in seeds and plants. This speeds up a natural process that can take millions of years. So the aim is to give Mother Nature a helping hand to produce crops that are tolerant to harsh conditions, resistant to diseases, more nutritious, or have better yields.
Lagoda: In Viet Nam, in the Mekong Delta, we had a project which we successfully developed with our Vietnamese counterparts on a rice that could be harvested three times a year. Normally from putting the seed in the ground to harvesting, you have to wait from 120 to 150 days. And with this crop, we could reduce that period of time to 100 days so that the farmer could have three harvests in a year compared to two harvests. Imagine what this means first in common also for the food security. SEGUE Asia is the continent that has fully implemented this too. I think it is due to the fact that the pragmatic issues of mutation induction are very well integrated into the social structure of these countries. China is very active in this respect, because mutation induction is a very solid and robust technology that has been developed with pragmatic aims and the difficulties in mutation induction using for breeding is actually the selection process, so if you don't have a good selection methodology then mutation induction will be very cumbersome, but in these countries what is very proficient and efficient is to use the human factor. So if you have many people that go through a field selecting from hundred of thousands of individuals' a mutant then you will be very effective and this is what is mainly needed as to have people going through the field and finding the mutant.
Angela: Today this technology is being used in some 10 countries worldwide. And close to 3,000 crop varieties from 170 different plant species have been released. These crops provide food as well as economic benefits for farmers and consumers, especially in developing countries.
This is Angela Leiker reporting from Vienna, Austria.
