Application of radiation in agriculture in Indonesia

Radiation has been used in agriculture research and development in Indonesia since several decades ago, especially in fields of mutation breeding, pest control, plant nutrition, and animal health. Mutation breeding using gamma radiation has contributed several crop varieties, namely seven varieties of rice, three of soybean, and two of mungbean to national agriculture. Besides, hundreds of promising mutant lines of rice, soybean, mungbean, peanut, sorghum, horticultural crops, and industrial plants which are ready for multi-location trials. Radiation is also used for the control of insect pests, either field or storage pests. Storage pests are eradicated by lethal dosage for direct killing, while the population of field pests (especially fruit flies) is eliminated by the release of radiosterilized insects in the program of sterile insects technique (SIT). A pilot scale trial of SIT to control fruit fly is being conducted in East Java province. Lethal dosage of gamma irradiation is used as post-harvest treatment for food of such as dried spices, fresh fruits, and packed foods. Gamma radiation has been also used to sterilize culture media of Bradyrhizobium, a nitrogen fixative bacteria that is the symbiont of soybean to be used in yield improvement. In animal health, gamma radiation can be used directly or indirectly to eliminate, decrease diseases. Disease control can use irradiation to develop vaccines, and to produce the diagnostic reagent kits. Vaccines for Coccidiosis (chick) diseases have been produced and disseminated in Indonesia. (author)