SIR’s success goes global
International experts gather here for first-hand look at codlingmoth control operation. By Judie Steeves
I
t’s the nature of a successful sterile insect technology (SIT) pest control program that when it’s successful the infrastructure built to make it work is needed less, so it ends up with unused capacity.
That’s the situation with the facility built 20 years ago in Osoyoos to sterilize codling moths in order to control populations of the serious pest for apple and pear growers.
That extra capacity for irradiating insects is now available for sale to other regions and countries, with the potential for preventing an increase in taxes to pay for continuing to operate the Sterile Insect Release facility here. General manager Cara Nelson explains that in the current situation it would be difficult to eradicate the codling moth here so it’s essential to keep the facility operating, but that excess capacity should be a money- maker for the SIR program. B.C.’s SIR program is the longest- running in the world to use an area-wide codling moth management program using SIT, although other programs in the world do use the technology for eradication, suppression, containment and prevention of pest issues, she explains.
Its success is based on the co- operation of industry and the local community to take responsibility for controlling codling moth and it depends not just on commitment but also a legal mandate.
SIR’s success is celebrated amongst experts around the world, and they converged on the Okanagan in June to see the program’s operations first-hand. “We’re a flagship program,” she adds. “Our area-wide approach is envied around the world.”
Specialists in area-wide Integrated Pest Management and SIT attended from such areas as the U.S., Europe, China, Malaysia, Chile, Tunisia and South Africa, where B.C. helped them
British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2014 23 Cara Nelson
set up a codling moth SIR program. Acting on behalf of the Canadian government, the SIR program was host to the official meeting of the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the International Atomic Energy
Agency Division in the Okanagan June 2 to 6, followed by an external review of the SIR program by a select few international specialists the week following the meeting.
Recommendations for improvements and a new strategic direction for the program will be presented to the SIR board as a result of that review. “The world wants to know about what we’re doing, about how we’ve been so successful at reducing the amount of
pesticides used in the valley.” Nelson admits it’s been frustrating that the program hasn’t been used more by growers to help them reach niche markets that pay a premium for fruit grown using fewer pesticides and taking advantage of sustainable pest control practices such as the SIR program. “Such specialty markets are where the money is. We certainly can’t compete with the huge growers in Washington State without standing out from them in some way. This is our specialty. “Europeans are very conscious of how their food is produced and they realize we can’t continue to rely on chemicals to control pests,” she notes. Others are just as concerned.
Nelson made a presentation to the Canadian Horticulture Council annual general meeting held in Kelowna in March, about area-wide approaches to pest management and the success of the SIR program.
She said so many people came up to her afterwards to talk to her about it that they had to wait in line for their turn.
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