Mexico will share with Latin America its experience in the sterile insect pest control technique This effort, coordinated by Mexico, through the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development, with 17 countries, will help strengthen environmentally friendly phytosanitary measures in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Representatives of 18 countries, including Mexico, agreed to increase technical, scientific and technological cooperation on the use of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to strengthen environmentally friendly phytosanitary measures in Latin America and the Caribbean. These actions are part of the project "Strengthening Food Safety through Effective Pest Management Plans Using the Sterile Insect Technique as a Control Method", under the framework of the technical cooperation program of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In a virtual meeting chaired by the IAEA technical officer, Walther Enkerlin, and the Program's managing officer, Nicola Schloegl, the governments agreed to seek a greater transfer of technology and supply of equipment to countries with less experience in implementing the SIT. The Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development informed that Mexico, through the National Service for Agro-Alimentary Public Health, Safety, and Quality (Senasica), has been using this technique for more than 40 years on the southern border to keep the Mediterranean fruit fly out of national territory. Therefore, it was agreed that our country would share its experience in laboratory analysis for species identification, implementing emergency plans for pest outbreaks, and strengthening surveillance systems and response capacity. During the virtual meeting, the country representatives also outlined their plan of action for this year and elected Wilda Ramirez, Director of Plant Health of Argentina's National Agro-Alimentary Health and Quality Service (Senasa), as lead coordinator. The official pointed out that the regional approach promotes the development of intellectual innovations and technological capabilities, which is an opportunity to advance in environmentally friendly control strategies and contribute from plant health to the Sustainable Development Goals. She stated that SIT offers a fundamental tool for comprehensive pest management, which can be used in combination with other control methods. The Sterile Insect Technique consists of mass-rearing male larvae that are sterilized with gamma or X-rays and systematically released in areas where fruit flies are present, where they mate with wild females without producing offspring. Senasica produces more than 500 million sterile male Mediterranean fruit fly pupae weekly at its fly rearing and sterilization plant in Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas. These actions prevent the settlement of the Mediterranean fruit fly in Chiapas and Tabasco, as well as its spread to the rest of the country. Consequently, 1.9 million hectares of crops of the main fruit and vegetable products that host the pest, which have an annual production of 21 million tons and an estimated commercial value of 189,470 million pesos, are protected. The countries involved in this project, in which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is collaborating, are Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.