Tiarin Ferreira

Tiarin Ferreira is a masters student at the University of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa. She is passionate about her research, which is about the safe use of tiny worms (formally known as entomopathogenic nematodes) for the biological control of the vine snout beetle, which causes economic damage in apple, pear and nectarine orchards. Although the worms she works with are a competitive biological control option for growers and they are commercially available in many countries such as Europe and North America, they have not yet been widely used in Africa In the long run, she wants to use mother nature to create an effective, inexpensive and environmentally safe outdoor commercial spray to protect the crops. This means that South African farmers can produce organic crops, without having to use expensive and dangerous pesticides, and going green ''is perfect for the green revolution that is spreading like wild fire,'' she says. Tiarin was born in Ceres, which is about an hour and a half's drive from Cape Town. Ceres is quite an inportant area for growing apples and pears and it is also where they produce Ceres fruit juice, so she knows firsthand the importance of protecting South African crops and helping South African farmers and farmworkers.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• South African scientist
• University of Cape Town
• Commuicating Science course
• African science
• nematodes
• worms
• biocontrol
• University of Stellenbosch
• science communication
• female scientist
• www.sanematodes.com