Tacna and Moquegua Regions in Southern Peru Declared Fruit Fly Free Areas
The Animal and Plant Health Service (SENASA) of Peru, a decentralized public institution of the Ministry of Agriculture, has informed that Peru, after more than 20 years of dedicated efforts
has achieved the eradication of very destructive horticultural fruit fly pests (the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, and also Anastrepha fruit flies) in
the regions of Tacna and Moquegua by means of the area-wide integrated application of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT).
This work has been achieved by the Peruvian State together with financial support from, the Interamerican Development Bank, technical support from the FAO/IAEA Joint Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, producers, exporters, regional and local authorities and the public in general.
This achievement benefits the country by:
- avoiding the use of an average of 602,120 litres of chemical products, thereby helping to preserve the environment
- avoiding the loss of more than $US 12 million in the yearly production of fruit and vegetable crops in the regions of Tacna and Moquegua (where losses amounted to approximately 40%) and contributing to improving the quality of life of producers and consumers
- generating gains and direct benefits to 17,876 fruit and vegetable producers (including melons, cucurbit vegetable and various other crops) on approximately 38,000 hectares of agricultural land located in the coastal districts and inter-andean valleys of both regions
- creating opportunities for national and in particular international trade of these products
- modernizing the internal systems of commercialization through the direct linking of producers, traders and exporters
- facilitating achievement of benefits within the framework of the Free Trade Agreement with the USA, as well as other treaties
- incorporating the national and international private sector in the investment for fruit and vegetable production
- obtaining the confidence of the financial sector and national and international institutions, which have recently approved new projects within the framework of the national fruit fly programme, which foresee the gradual expansion of the eradication areas to other regions where fruit fly populations are already under suppression (Ica, Arequipa, Lima, Ancash, La Libertad and Lambayeque).
Chile, also with technical support from the FAO/IAEA Joint Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, achieved eradication of the Mediterranean fruit fly in the 1990s, significantly expanding as a result their fresh fruit and exports as a result of the fruit fly free status. This was followed by a binational Chile-Peru IAEA technical cooperation project to facilitate the transboundary collaboration and the harmonization of technical approaches. Also both sterile fly mass rearing facilities in Arica, Chile and La Molina, Peru use a Mediterranean fruit fly genetic sexing strain provided by the FAO/IAEA. Eradication of fruit flies in Tacna and Moquegua regions is a culmination of these multi-institutional efforts.