APPLICATIONS OF NUCLEAR TECHNIQUES IN AGRICULTURE

Isotopes and radiations have proved to be a powerful tool in the

agricultural sciences. With improvements in techniques and
equipment, the importance of this tool is ever increasing. There are
several vital areas in agriculture where the potentials of isotopes and
nuclear techniques could be realized for the betterment of mankind.
Some of these are elucidated here.

Mutation Breeding
For sustainable food production, it is imperative to produce
cultivars with increased yields, increased resistance to plant diseases,
insect pests and soil stresses. In this respect, mutation breeding
techniques have proved to be the most effective. Mutations are
suddenly occurring variations resulting from alterations in the genetic
make-up of the living organism and are inherited. The practical
importance of mutations is that they add to the variability of crops
available for selection by the breeders to produce improved crop
varieties.

Radiation has the property of inducing mutations in crop plants.

In 1904, De Vries suggested the possibility of using radiation for the
induction of mutations. In 1928, x-rays were used by L. J. Stadler to
induce mutations in barley and maize. However, it has taken several
years of research to realize this as a practical possibility in plant
improvement.

Mutations can be induced in plants by either gamma, x- or

neutron irradiation. Most work hitherto has been done with gamma or
x-radiation because of easy availability of these radiation sources.
More than 2300 improved mutant cultivars have been released to-
date.
Food Irradiation
Developing countries still experience high post-harvest losses of food,
despite the availability of many food processing technologies. Post-
harvest losses in Asian countries are estimated at 30% for grains, 20 –
40% for fruits and vegetables and up to 50% for fish. In African
countries, losses of fruits, vegetables and fish are even higher than
50%.
Many of such losses are attributed to insect infestation to
combat which we fumigate cereals, pulses and other stored products
with chemicals. Their use has created problems relating to health and
environment. Irradiation is an effective method for reducing post-
harvest losses of a range of food products (Table 1).

Table 1: Practical applications of food irradiation (Source: Paul Thomas, 1996)

Product Purpose of irradiation Dose required

Potato, onion, garlic,
ginger
Banana, mango,
papaya
Rice, atta, suji,
pulses, spices, dry
fruits, nuts, dried fish
Sea foods, poultry,
meat products
(kGy)
Inhibition of sprouting to 0.05 – 0.15
extend shelf-life and
reduce post-harvest losses
Delaying ripening to 0.25 – 0.75
extend shelf-life and as a
quarantine treatment for
insect disinfestations
Control of insect 0.25 – 1.0
infestation in pre-
packaged products
Elimination of parasitic 0.25 – 1.0
organisms (tape worms,
round worms, etc.).
Shelf-life extension under 1.5 – 3.0
 refrigeration by reduction
of spoilage bacteria
Control of food-borne 3.0 – 7.0
diseases by elimination of
pathogenic
microorganisms in fresh
and frozen products (e.g.
Salmonella, Vibrio,
Staphylococcus, E. coli,
etc.
Spices, dried herbs Hygienization by reducing 7.0 – 10.0
and vegetables contaminating

The process involves exposure of food, pre-packaged or in bulk,

to radiant energy from gamma rays, x-rays or electrons in an
irradiator. Unlike chemical fumigants, radiation processing leaves no
residues. Further, it is a cold processing technology and hence
preserves heat-sensitive commodities in their natural form. Over 65
countries have approved the use of radiation instead of chemical or
other methods to treat foodstuffs for safety or phytosanitary purposes.
Collectively, there are over 200 such food irradiation facilities
worldwide.

Soil and Fertilizer Management

Research workers in soil chemistry and soil fertility were among
the first to utilize isotopic methods when they became available. Such
techniques have now very greatly advanced our knowledge in regard
to the availability, uptake and utilization of fertilizer nutrients and the
factors governing them. What is attempted here is to outline the
situations where radiotracer techniques have played a unique and
significant role.
Availability of Nutrient Elements in Soil
The ‘A’ Value
A number of procedures have been developed to provide
practical methods for expressing the availability of a soil nutrient.
The so-called ‘A’, ‘L’ (Larsen, 1952) and ‘E’ (McAuliffe et al., 1948)
values, all examples of the principle of isotope dilution analysis, can
provide a definite reference base for comparing different chemical
extraction methods for routine, large-scale determinations of nutrient
availability.

Of these, the ‘A’ value has the widest acceptance and use. Fried
and Dean (1952) pointed out that when two sources of nutrient are
present in the soil, the plant would absorb from each of these sources
in proportion to the respective quantities “available”. Thus, the
amount of available nutrient in the soil can be determined in terms of
a standard, provided the proportion of the nutrient in the plants
derived from this standard is determined:
B (1-y)
A = ------------------
y

where, A = amount of available nutrient in the soil, B = amount of

fertilizer nutrient (standard) applied and y = proportion of nutrient in
the plant derived from the standard.

Although the ‘A’ value was primarily developed to determine the

availability of P in soil, the principles employed are in fact applied to a
number of nutrient elements, as S (using S), Ca (45Ca) and Zn (65Zn).
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The ‘A’ value can be, as a corollary, also used to determine the relative
effectiveness of different fertilizers when applied to the same soil, as
the availability of the soil nutrient is taken to be a constant.
Principles in Use of Labeled Fertilizers
For a known constant amount of radioactivity, the specific
activity is inversely proportional to the total amount of test element
present in the system. Thus, if we label a fertilizer with an isotope
such as 32
P, apply it to the soil and subsequently grow a crop, then it
will be possible to determine what proportion of phosphorus in the
crop came from the fertilizer and what proportion came from the soil.

% of phosphorus Specific activity of plant sample

derived from the = -------------------------------------------- x 100
fertilizer (%Pdff) Specific activity of fertilizer

% of phosphorus
derived from the soil = 100 - %Pdff
(%Pdfs)
The ability to label the fertilizer and thereby determine directly
the proportion of nutrient ion taken up by the crop which has been
derived from the fertilizer is the unique feature of the isotope
technique.
Nutrient uptake from % nutrient dff
the fertilizer (kg ha )
-1
= -------------------- x Total nutrient uptake (kg
ha-1)
100

Nutrient uptake from % nutrient dfs

soil (kg ha-1) = -------------------- x Total nutrient uptake (kg
ha-1)
100

Nutrient uptake from the fertilizer

Fertilizer use efficiency = ------------------------------------------------ x 100
(%) Quantity of fertilizer nutrient applied

Fertilizer use efficiency

The broad possibilities of isotope investigations in fertilizer use
efficiency can be briefly summarized as follows:
 i) Clearly defining the optimum conditions of placement of
fertilizers.
ii) Clearly defining the relative efficiency of the major fertilizer
sources of a plant nutrient.
iii) Achieving a better understanding of the effect of time of
application on the efficiency of nutrient utilization.
iv) Obtaining by direct measurement, precise information on the
proportion of applied fertilizers actually taken up by the crops.
v) Obtaining a clear understanding of the penalty paid in terms of
fertilizer wastage, if inefficient placement or increased
fertilizer source is applied.

Root Studies
Radiotracer techniques make it easier to determine the
distribution of active roots, both in terms of area around individual
plants and also in relation to rooting depth in soil. The procedure
involves the injection of a radioisotope in the soil at various locations
to be tested for root activity and the amount of radioisotope
subsequently measured in the above-ground parts of the plant (Hall et
al., 1953; Raja Rajan and Balamurugan, 2003). The significance of
such studies lies in determining the best method of fertilizer
placement, the most suitable form of fertilizer to use and the optimum
time and frequency of fertilizer application. Fertilizer use efficiency
can thus be maximized, increasing yields and reducing cost of
production.

Entomology and Pest Management

The use of radioisotope-labeled insecticides in research has ever
been increasing. A great deal of information has been gathered on the
fate of insecticide residues and metabolites in insects, crops and
livestock.
 The application of gamma ray emitting material (e.g. Co wire)
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to the inside or outside of individual insects enables a researcher to

follow the movement of subterranean insects.

Radiotracers can serve as excellent tools in following the food

exchange among social insects as ants, honey bees and termites. After
feeding radioisotope labeled material to one insect (donor), the other
nest mates can be checked to determine whether or not they are
radioactive.

Radioisotopes are also an excellent tool for carrying out

ecological investigations such as insect migration patterns and flight
ranges, identification of primary parasites and predators of insect
pests and estimations of insect populations.

Knipling (1955) was the first to publish on the use of sexually

sterile males for suppressing insect populations. This method of insect
population control, known as 'Sterile Insect technique’ (SIT), has been
widely tested against a variety of insects. They include the screw
worm, which affects humans and warm-blooded animals (principally,
cattle), the Mediterranean fruit fly and the tsetse fly, which affects
both livestock and humans.

The technique involved rearing insects, which are then

sterilized by radiation and later released in the infested areas. Their
mates do not produce off springs, and with repeated releases, the
population is reduced and eradicated. The SIT has features that could
solve a wide range of important pest problems in an effective,
economical and ecologically sound manner.

Waste Treatment
 Pollution of land, water and air is widespread and is of growing
concern of global proportions. Irradiation facilities for treatment of
wastes have been constructed in many countries. The first large scale
plant was Geiselbullach Gamma Sludge Irradiator constructed in
Germany in 1973. India’s Sludge Hygienization Research Irradiator
(SHRI) at Baroda is the second such plant in the world, commissioned
in 1992. The objective is to irradiate sludge with gamma radiation and
use hygienized sludge as a safe manure. Disinfected sludge can be
safely recycled foe use as a manure and soil conditioner and offers
long term soil improvement.

Radiotracer techniques thus offer several unique applications in

the field of agriculture to increase and stabilize agricultural
production and to improve the quality of life. It must be our endeavor
to exploit the potentials of isotopes and radiation techniques in
agricultural research and development; to increase and stabilize
agricultural production; to improve the quality of food; to protect
agricultural products from spoilage and losses; and to minimize
pollution of food and the agricultural environment.
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