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Customers worldwide are increasingly demanding agricultural produce free of pesticide residues and demand for biological pest control methods, including the sterile insect technique (SIT), is rapidly increasing. The environment-friendly SIT pest control method involves the mass rearing of the target insect pests, the sterilisation of the reared insects and their subsequent release. As released sterile males mate with wild virgin females no offspring are produced, eventually causing the native pest population to decline or become extinct. The research and development activities at the IPCL are aimed at developing, improving and validating the use of the SIT as a component of area-wide integrated pest management programmes against select insect pests. In these endeavours, the IPCL is recognised worldwide as the pivotal global centre for research and development related to the SIT.