Nuclear Science and Applications
for Food and Agriculture
Qu Liang
Outline
• Overview
• Core Areas for Nuclear Application in Food
and Agriculture
• Some Success by Using Nuclear Techniques
in Food and Agriculture
Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy
• Nuclear science and application for
peaceful purposes :
– Nuclear power application
– Non-power Applications
• Non-power Applications
– Food and agriculture
– Human health
Competitive advantages of nuclear techniques
Traceability:
Radioactivity:
Measurability:
Accuracy:
Specificity:
Isotopic tracers as marker
Induced genetic variation, sterility, sterilization
Radio and stable isotope measurable
More accurate than conventional methods
Unique sensitivity and specificity
Core Areas for Nuclear Application in
Food and Agriculture
• Animal Production and Health
• Food quality and food safety
• Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition
• Plant Breeding and Genetics
Animal Production and Health
6
•
Diagnostic tests (early and rapid diagnostic technologies)
Avian influenza, foot-and-mouth disease, Newcastle disease, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, Rift Valley fever, African swine fever, Peste des petits ruminants, Capripoxvirus diseases
•
Tracing of transboundary animals and their diseases
Monitoring and tracing migratory pathways of transboundary animal diseases
•
Development/evaluation/validation of irradiated vaccines
More effective and broad spectrum of protection
•
Improving animal nutrition and local breeds
Increasing animal nutrition by using local animal breeds
Plant Breeding and Genetics
•
Improving crop cultivars by using mutation
breeding techniques
•
Developing mutant varieties with better
adaptation to climate change
•
Increasing efficiency of mutation breeding through
application of modern biotechnology
Food and Environmental Protection
•
Monitoring and tracing technology
➢
Food forensics ---
‘finger printing’ techniques
➢
Traceability ---
tracing contaminants techniques
➢Authenticity ---
food origin determination
•
Analytical technology
➢
Agrochemical residues analysis
➢
Contaminant analysis
•
Food irradiation
➢
Food Processing
➢
Phytosanitary Treatments
Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition
• Quantifying soil erosion and land degradation for
cost-effective soil conservation at watershed level
• Tracing water and nutrient pathways for improved
water and fertilizer use efficiency
• Determining contribution of organic sources to
sustainable soil organic carbon sequestration
• Understanding climate change impact in food and
agriculture for enhancing climate change adaptation
-mitigation
Insect Pest Control
Using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)
– Control of major plant pest
– Control of livestock pest
– Control of mosquitoes
– Development of genetic sexing and other
methodologies
Nuclear Applications for Climate Smart Agriculture
− From understanding to action
• Assessment/evaluation of:
– Impact of climate change on agriculture
– Impact of agricultural practices on climate change
• Development of technologies for adaptation and
building resilience to climate change
Success in nuclear application for
food and agriculture
12
Mutation Breeding
More than 3283 plant mutation varieties in about 220 plant species released
Pakistan：Of the 3.1 million hectares planted with cotton, 15-25% are with mutant varieties, expected to increase to 30–40% in the next few years. The 43 mutant varieties for all crops yielded an estimated economic impact of US$ 6 billion as of April 2018.
Viet Nam: Overall 20 new mutant rice varieties were released in recent years, which are currently grown by more than 300,000 farmers. US$ 374
millions additional income generated within 4 years by the saline-tolerant variety “Khang Dan”
Peru：The mutant barley variety, Centenario II, now covers 18% of the
dedicated barley growing area and is estimated to contribute US$ 6.6 million annually to the national economy
Success in nuclear application for
food and agriculture
Sterile Insect Technique
Dominican Republic: Release of irradiated fruit flies helped the Dominican Republic eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly that caused $40 million loss in export and put 30,000 jobs at risk, over a short period of time.
Senegal: Sterile Insect Technique contributed to the complete suppression of tsetse flies in the Niayes region, allowing farmers to grow imported cattle (with 20-40 litres of milk a day) instead of indigenous cattle (with merely 1–2 litres of milk a day).
Thailand: Irradiated fruit flies helped a community of 855 faming
Success in nuclear application for
food and agriculture
14
Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition
Sudan and Mauritania: Isotopic Techniques Fostered Subsistence Agriculture and Poverty Alleviation, empowering 6,000 refugee women in Sudan and 400 rural women in Mauritania to produce food to improve nutrition and health and generate additional income.
Morocco and Madagascar: Fallout radionuclides and stable isotope technique helped Morocco reduce soil losses by 40% to 60%. Based on similar results, farmers in Madagascar develop sustainable soil conservation practices, protecting livelihoods of over 75% of the population.
Benin: Isotopic techniques helped 14,000 farmers, in central and northern Benin, triple yields and improve livelihoods. They achieved significant yield increases for both maize and legume crops such as soybean.
Success in nuclear application for
food and agriculture in Asia
Food Safety
Viet Nam: Irradiation is successfully applied for food processing, which greatly facilitated dragonfruit exports, nearing an annual output of 700,000 tons with over 80% of the produce exported to 40 countries.
China, Slovenia and Singapore: Stable isotope analyses helped China, Slovenia, Singapore confirm composition and origin of milk, ensuring authenticity. They helped other nations promote products authenticity for cheese, olive, meat, fruit juice, honey, vanilla, etc.
Benin: Enhancing capabilities of Benin’s Central Laboratory of Food Safety helped farm products meet international food safety standards for export to lucrative markets (e.g. European Union). As such, Benin’s beekeepers enjoy enhanced income from their annual 600 tons of
Success in nuclear application for
food and agriculture
16
Animal production and health
African Swine Fever (ASF) – China & South Asia: Recently, early detection and rapid containment of ASF - that caused a loss of about 90,000 pigs between December 2018 and January 2019 in China alone - protected thousands of smallholder farmers and prevented an economic disaster for the pork industry, not only in China but elsewhere.
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) – Bulgaria & Mongolia: VETLAB’s prompt action, using nuclear-derived techniques helped containing PPR outbreaks in Mongolia (2016) and Bulgaria (2018). Containing the spreading of the PPR is essential to limiting huge economic losses, currently estimated at US$1.2 to 2.1 billion per year.
Avian Influenza – Asia & Africa: Early diagnosis and rapid control of the outbreak in many Asian countries protected more than 100 million poultry, and saved more than 1 billion US$. Similarly, in 2017, early detection and rapid containment protected the livelihoods of thousands of poultry farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
