ICRISAT to produce bio-pesticide in Indian, Nepal villages

Hyderabad, Aug 22 (UNI) The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and its partners have initiated production of bio-pesticide in villages of India and Nepal to relieve the farmers of the pesticide menace and to reduce the use of chemical pesticides.

An ICRISAT release said caterpillars devour crop plants and cause extensive loss to farmers. Helicoverpa armigera larvae (the caterpillar) would provide themselves a priceless environmental service in the elimination of the pest, the release added.

It could be used to produce a biopesticide which protected crops from Helicoverpa armigera itself.

The ICRISAT had given a modern twist to a traditional technology and had been able to establish biopesticide production units in 76 villages in India and 20 villages in Nepal in collaboration with national agricultural research and extension systems and NGOs, through a World Bank funded project, it added.

This project proposal had won the World Bank's Development Marketplace Award.

ICRISAT had succeeded in using larvae for the multiplication of the Nucleo Polyhedrosis Virus (NPV), a biopesticide that would kill Helicoverpa. The technology for NPV production involved collecting the larvae and feeding them with an NPV-infected diet till they died due to infection. The NPV biopesticide was extracted from the dead larvae and could be sprayed on crops to manage Helicoverpa attack, the release further added.

With the high impact of the biopesticide, strengthened with other eco-friendly activities in the past two years, the farmers reduced the spraying of chemical pesticide on several crops, the release said.

According to ICRISAT Director General William Dar, villagers now have the know-how for the production of an effective biopesticide.

and this enabled them to be self-sufficient in meeting their needs for biopesticide.

ICRISAT's Scientist G V Ranga Rao said this project helped farmers to start biopesticide production in their own villages.

In addition to establishing the village level biopesticide units, ICRISAT and partners trained 201 researchers and 983 farmers in India and Nepal on NPV production at the village level and integrated pest management, he added.

UNI