Pacific Islands Advance Agriculture and Nutrition with IAEA’s Nuclear Science Initiatives

Over the past two years, the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme has been implementing the Sub-regional Approach to the Pacific Islands (SAPI).

The Pacific islands have made significant strides in improving agriculture and enhancing nutrition through a new localized approach by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), utilizing nuclear science to tackle development challenges.

Over the past two years, the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme has been implementing the Sub-regional Approach to the Pacific Islands (SAPI). This initiative focuses on areas where nuclear science and technology offer a competitive advantage over other methods and where their application can lead to tangible development outcomes.

Recognized as a distinct group of developing countries by the United Nations, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific face common development obstacles, including vulnerabilities to climate change, such as ocean acidification, rising sea levels, and reduced crop productivity. The IAEA’s SAPI approach promotes sub-regional collaboration among these nations, leveraging national resources to build collective resilience.

“The Sub-regional Approach to the Pacific Islands has been delivered through a set of sub-regional projects, serving as an important complementary mechanism for enhancing the effectiveness of national programmes. By jointly utilizing national facilities, such as research institutions or universities, Pacific islands are strengthening their resilience as a sub-region,” said Javier Romero, IAEA Project Management Officer.

The IAEA supports seven Pacific SIDS in various areas, including food and agriculture, health, and nutrition. Challenges such as extreme weather, seawater intrusion, and long transportation times for goods hinder food production and availability in these regions.

To address these challenges, Vanuatuan researchers participated in a regional training course at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture in 2019. They learned how to use nuclear technology to develop crop varieties better suited to changing climate conditions, gaining hands-on experience in mutation breeding.

“The contribution of new technologies, such as mutagenesis using gamma rays, holds great potential for SIDS,” said Juliane Kaoh, Head of Horticultural Perennial Crops at Biosecurity Vanuatu. “Thanks to IAEA support, we successfully applied this technology to sweet potato, and the irradiated plants are currently under investigation at the Vanuatu Agricultural Research and Technical Centre,” she added.

In 2022, another plant breeding training course for SIDS was held at the Pacific Community’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees in Fiji, where participants from several Pacific nations built skills in mutation breeding and methods for screening stress in crops.

The IAEA is also supporting Fiji National University to become a sub-regional hub for nutrition programmes. In April 2024, the university hosted a nutrition training course using nuclear techniques for participants from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga. The course provided hands-on training in the isotopic technique of deuterium dilution to assess body composition, a critical factor in addressing non-communicable diseases prevalent in the Pacific.

Through their involvement in the IAEA’s technical cooperation programme, Pacific island nations are making concrete progress in enhancing resilience and addressing key development challenges using nuclear science and technology.