Knight in shining armour
p. 19 · Read in the full issue
MOST farmers and villagers in the South Pacific have probably not heard of the high-flying Canberra-based Austra lian Centre for Agricultural Research.
But if they had fallen victim to devastat ing plagues of banana skippers, white scale or fruit piercing moths ACIAR may have become their saviour.
Take banana skippers for instance.
Away from their home in Thailand and their natural predators, banana skipper caterpillars can cause devastation, strip ping trees back to bare spines and ruining their ability to bear fruit. In the mid-eighties banana skippers decimated Papua New Guinea’s fledgling banana industry and caused great hardship for villagers. The caterpillars cut export earnings, drastically reduced an import ant staple food and ate the banana leaves so important for traditional uses such as wrapping fruits for ripening, covering
food and firewood to keep it fresh or dry and making utensils.
True to its philosophy of finding environmentally sustainable solutions in partnership with developing country scientists, ACIAR brought together experts from Australia and PNG to find a remedy which avoided the use of chemicals. After a careful survey of available banana skipper predators and their effect on indigenous PNG skippers a natural enemy from Thailand an egg parasite was introduced. For a total cost of $227,000 the banana skippers were brought under control and their march south and east to Australia and other island countries, abruptly halted.
Just 10 years old, ACIAR is a relatively young institution.
Recognising Australia’s strengths in tropical research it was set up to promote sustainable systems of agriculture forestry and fisheries in partnership with developing countries. Its environmentally friendly approach to agriculture is reflected in its emphasis on finding ways of controlling pests which do not use chemicals, its use of leguminous plants that naturally take nitrogen from the air rather than through the application of chemical fertilisers and in developing techniques to control soil erosion that also yield crops in the long term. In general ACIAR’s claim that its projects “involve true collaboration between Australian and developing country scientists to the solutions are “home grown” in the partner countries” is not an idle boast. Over the years it has worked with and offered training to many island scientists and technicians.
Despite its youth ACIAR is no small operation. It has an annual budget of $25.6 million, 80 per cent of which is spent in South East Asia, the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea.
Since 1988 ACIAR has carried out 40 projects in 10 island countries. Most of those projects have been in agriculture and fisheries. Working with a host of other institutions ACIAR has helped control the fruit piercing moth which was held back the diversification and export potential of the island fru'it and
vegetable industry.
In one night a single one of these tiny insects can pierce 30 to 40 fruit, introducing rot which quickly destroys the crop.
Although the moths are native to the region their numbers exploded with the introduction of commercial agriculture which greatly increased the concentration of suitable food supplies. The solution which is now starting to control fruit piercing moths came in the form of a natural parasite.
ACIAR projects also found a natural parasite for the white peach scale which brought Western Samoa’s passionfruit industry to its knees.
One of ACIAR’s biggest projects in the Pacific has focussed on fruitfly a scourge which has led to the frequent rejection of Pacific export shipments and bans on their entry into Australia and New Zealand.
Fruitflies come in an almost endless variety, attacking a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Starting in Cook Islands, Tonga, Western Samoa and Fiji ACIAR projects have ident ified myriad fly species and the fruits they attack. It is now looking into environmentally friendly ways of dealing with these pests.
One particularly promising option is a new form of poisoned bait which uses waste yeast from local breweries.
Tiny amounts of the yeast, which is very attractive to fruitflies, but no other insects, are laced with deadly chemicals. Initial results were so successful that ACIAR is now investigating the feasibility of producing the baits in
commercial quantities.
Not all ACIAR’s projects are in agriculture. In fact many are in fisheries. These include projects to: • increase and manage stocks of trochus which were pushed to the brink of crisis with the revival of the world market for trochus shell in the mid-eighties. • restore over-exploited pearl oyster populations and refine techniques for inserting beads to stimulate pearl
growth.
• come up with a plan for the sustainable development of game fishing tourism in PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. • conduct major research into the location of tuna baitfish and sustainable rates of harvest, and look into giant clam
farming.
In the Pacific, although there are a growing number of island scientists, their small numbers and the tendency of many bright young graduates to go into administration has made it harder for ACIAR to enter into long-term high level collaborative work with islanders.
At the same time Australian aid insistence that the major contract in any collaboration go to an Australian institution has not helped. The awarding recently of the lead contract on a project to establish the nutrient composition of traditional island foods to the Suva-based University of the South Pacific, is a regional first which may have broken that mould.
With so many island health problems stemming from a rapid transition to a western diet, this $340,000 project aims to widen the work on traditional foods being done by USP’s Food Analysis Unit. The substantial injection of funds resulting from the project will give this very successful unit, and the island scientists who work there, more certainly about their future and ensure their methods and equipment remain the cutting edge of their field. Perhaps the way is now open for more Island Research Institutes to win this sort of funding; funding which is necessary if they are able to guarantee their staff a long-term future in research. □