The Tuvalu Department of Agriculture/Biosecurity team preparing fruit fly traps and lures ahead of field deployment.
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Armed with more than 500 traps and three types of pheromone lures, the Pacific Community Land Resources Division plant health team has joined with the Tuvalu Department of Agriculture on a mission to eradicate the fruit fly pest from Niulakita Island in Tuvalu.
Fruit flies are a major fruiting vegetable crop pest not only because they damage production, but also impact market access. Niulakita Island is known for supplying breadfruit, pawpaw and other fruits and vegetables to Tuvalu’s main island, Funafuti. However, due to the fruit fly pest, the Tuvalu government has placed a ban on movement of vegetable produce from Niulakita.
With support from the EU funded SAFE Pacific project, the SPC team and the Tuvalu agriculture team will be on the island for two weeks to trap and monitor the fruit fly population densities and collect distribution hot spots data before deciding the right window of time to eradicate the population.
The SPC team setting fruit fly traps in Samoa
Niulakita Island has a population of approximately 50 people and is located on the southernmost part of the Tuvalu island group. Travelling to the island takes more than 10 hours by boat from Funafuti.
“The request to eradicate the fruit fly pest came from the Tuvalu Minister for Agriculture and the Director for Agriculture when they attended the Pacific Week of Agriculture in Fiji earlier this year,” said Atumurirava Fereti, the SPC LRD Pest and Disease Advisor.
“Working with our Tuvalu biosecurity counterparts, we plan to map and create a 100m x 100m grid of Niulakita atoll by plotting all waypoints in GPS, using these waypoints to locate our trap deployment sites. The data collected from these sites is very important to understand the level of fruit fly spread.”
Tuvalu’s Director of Agriculture, Matio Lonalona welcomed the visit, saying this will allow the Ministry to fast track their work on suppressing the pest. “The Tuvalu Government plans to transform Niulakita Atoll to a fully organic island. However, one of the major obstacles to this initiative is the presence of fruit flies affecting the production of fresh produce. We want to lift the ban once the fruit fly population is suppressed or eradicated and allow the people on Niulakita to trade again and access local markets for their produce,” concluded Lonalona.
The SPC team will hold further trainings with Tuvalu’s biosecurity team on servicing of the traps and lures as well as collection, packaging and shipping of specimens to Fiji, where the SPC regional Plant Health Lab is located, for further testing. This will allow the team to identify the type of fruit fly species on the island and propose solutions to control it.
Media enquiries
Matilda Simmons, SPC LRD Communications Assistant: [email protected]
Jamie Kemsey, SPC LRD Information, Communications and Knowledge Management Advisor: [email protected]
