“Rising temperatures can cause heat stress in crops, influencing yield and consequently posing a serious income threat to farmers and a food security threat for the country,” said Fatma Sarsu, plant breeder and geneticist at the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. “Nuclear technology has been used worldwide to develop new varieties of crops that are more resilient to climate change and meet the needs of growing populations.”
In Mauritius, tomato is cultivated over an area of 750 hectares with an average annual production of 11,000 tonnes. When temperatures rise above 30 degrees, however, tomato yields can fall dramatically, by up to 80 per cent. With excessive sun and high temperatures, tomato plants dry out and no longer produce new fruit. This affects the local supply, which is then filled by a costly import of 10,000 tonnes of processed tomato products.
“During calamities there is a reduction in the production of tomato, which gives rise to an increase in price,” said Rita Devi Nowbuth, principal research scientist at FAREI. “People have to resort to imported tomato in processed form as there is a ban on the importation of fresh tomato.”