FAO joins the country´s push to fight the fruit fly

Santo Domingo.- Todeal with the economic setback resulting from the Mediterranean fruit fly´s (Medfly)presence in the country, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) isproviding technical assistance to the Agriculture Ministry.

The training includeshow to recognize and control the fruit fly by FAO consultant Raul Castañeda, togetherwith around 100 Agriculture Ministry technicians, especially those who work inthe east region.

Officials have also beengiven technical training stressing the release of sterile insects, a technique whichthe Agriculture Ministry will implement to prevent offspring from the insect, reducingpopulations in rural areas.

The FAO assistanceincludes the use of new traps placed domestically and on site practice for therelease of sterile insects in the areas they were detected.

The training iscoordinated with the Medfly-RD program in the cities of Higuey and SantoDomingo, and included a field exercise carried out in the area of ??Punta Cana,where the highest concentration of pest wasdetected last March.