Thank the Embassies of Brazil and Japan for hosting this meeting.

Thank Ambassadors Kitano and Vinhas for inviting me to participate in this debate, to share with you Spain´s experience in plague control with nuclear applications in agriculture.

In this regard, the IAEA is playing a very important role coordinating international efforts in scientific programmes and offering technical support to participating States.

Our experience in this field is a show case in plagues control since 2006, which also allowed producers to reduce the use of pesticides, with positive consequences for food quality.

According to FAO, Spain is the main fresh citrus fruits exporter worldwide and is focused in markets with demand for high quality fresh fruit. The Spanish citrus fruits sector exports more than half of its total production, with an average value of 2 billion euro per year.

The Mediterranean region of Valencia in Eastern Spain is the main producer at national level. Among the plagues affecting agriculture in the region, Ceratitis capitata, also referred to as the fruit fly or medfly, is one of the most harmful among them. Damages to agriculture include a lower production, with losses up to 100% of the harvest, and obstacles to export to the most demanding markets, in which the producers in this region are specialised.

Since fruit exports have been traditionally important for the regional economy, the authorities have undertaken, since the 1960´s, campaigns to fight this plague, initially by aerial spraying of pesticides.

There was a turning point in 2001, when some target markets introduced pest-related limitations to fruit cargoes.

The Spanish government issued a Decree, establishing a national control programme for the Mediterranean fruit fly. The regional government of Valencia designed a new, reinforced plague control programme:

The Sterile Insect Technique

The Sterile Insect Technique is one of the main components of this regional programme, implemented by a state controlled company, TRAGSA, which has around 10.000 employees and specialises in agriculture and environmental services. In order to develop its own expertise on this issue, the firm approached the Insect Pest Control Section of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division.

TRAGSA and the IAEA signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the transfer of technology and technical support services to be provided and the amount of money to be paid by Spain for the IAEA services.

I will be very brief in my explanation of the Sterile Insect Technique for those here not aware of it: The Sterile Insect Technique consists of a mass breeding of an insect species in a laboratory. The male insects are sterilized and subsequently set free from airplanes, leading to a progressive population decline.

The support given by the IAEA to TRAGSA included different activities:

-  The Agency trained some Spanish technicians in mass breeding techniques at the laboratories in Seibersdorf.

-  The programme managers took part in an Agency’s interregional Sterile Insect Technique training course.

-  Experts from the Agency gave technical advice to design both the mass breeding facilities in Spain and the centre of mass release of sterile males developed by the “Institute for research in agriculture” of the regional government in Valencia.

-  The Agency provided standard work and protocol procedures of quality control.

-  The Agency also transferred the genetic strains called Vienna 7 and Vienna 8, developed at the biotechnology laboratories of Seibersdorf. These advanced strains allow the production of only male insects, reducing production costs and significantly increasing the effectiveness of this technique, because it avoids the waste due to the interaction of sterile males and females.

The construction of a mass breeding facility in Spain started in 2006, after having carried out several pilot projects in small areas during the period 2002-2005, which made necessary weekly imports of sterile pupae from facilities in Mendoza, Argentina. The factory was called Centro de Control Biológico, also Bioplanta, with a weekly production capacity of 500 million of pupae, enough to supply the Sterile Insect Technique program over more than 150.000 hectares in the region of Valencia.

This Project achieved its main goals:

-  Since 2007 there has been a 95% reduction of the aerial spraying of pesticide.

-  There has been a significant reduction of the number of clementine type oranges shipments rejected upon phytosanitary inspection at the port of departure.

Another dimension of the project: international cooperation

Besides the success on its main goals, the cooperation between the Agency and TRAGSA has been the starting point of a specific centre for the international promotion of the Sterilized Insect Technique:

-  The Bioplanta shares expertise with other countries and exports pupae to SIT programmes in Croatia and Morocco,

-  It cooperates with the IAEA Technical Cooperation Program, receiving scientific visits and hosting training activities of experts from other countries, such as Tunisia, Jordan, Israel, Mauritius, Sudan, Morocco or Croatia.

-  Tragsa has participated in Coordinated Research Projects of the Agency, together with other Spanish research organisations.

We expect this fruitful cooperation with the Agency to continue. Right now, Tragsa and IAEA are negotiating agreements for future services financed by the company.

Future collaboration may include a project on Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) and a Regional Europe Project for the period 2016-17.

We are proud of being the fifth country in the world by the number of scientific visits and trainings hosted through the Technical Cooperation Program, and therefore we welcome the addition of the Bioplanta to the list of institutions collaborating with the IAEA Program.

I would like to express my gratitude to all the persons in the Agency involved in the project.

All this has been possible thanks to the support of the Department of Nuclear Applications in the IAEA and the laboratories at Seibersdorf, a world reference in Sterile Insect Technique.

Hence the need for a worldwide network of cooperation in the international community.

As we approach the NPT Review Conference, the need to have a fresh look at the peaceful uses of nuclear energy becomes more important. As Ambassador Vinhas pointed out this morning, peaceful nuclear applications are only limited by our imagination.

Thank you

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