Sex pheromones: Bio-pesticides as safer mode of pest management
07 January 2008
Last year, crops losses of worth of Rs50,000 crore were estimated due to pests, weeds and diseases. The total losses that affect the crops produced in the country are more than 30 per cent from the pest's attacks. Pests are affecting the standing crops of rice, sugarcane, pulses & wheat making the food grain production stagnant for last five years.
In India, consumption of pesticides is as low as 0.5 kg per hectare against Korea's 6.60 kg per hectare and Japan's 12.0 kg per hectare. According to the pesticides industry statistics, India spends $3 per hectare on pesticides compared with $255 per hectare spent by South Korea and $633 per hectare by Japan. Investing in pesticides gives the farmers more than five times of their return on the investment.
Many of the pesticides that farmers use for our crops have both environmental and health hazards. DDT, dioxin, HCH (hexachlorocyclohexane), and aldrin belong to the class of organochlorines. Almost every organochlorine studied has been linked to some environmental or human health harm. Most of these chemicals are banned in other countries and the rest are awaiting risk assessment reports before action can be taken but, they are still available in India and brought by small farmers because they are affordable.
Unlike conventional pesticides, there are chemicals known as pheromones which are safer mode of crop protection, that do not damage other animals, nor do they pose health risks to people. Pheromones lures and trap is an insect trapping apparatus which essentially works by using the sex pheromones generated by female insects to attract their male counterparts.
Pheromones specifically disrupt the reproductive cycle of harmful insects. In this way, farmers can reduce the amount of insecticide they need - spraying only when the insects are in a vulnerable stage or when their numbers exceed certain levels. There is no alteration to the natural biological and ecological cycle, hence ensuring that there is no environmental or health hazard. They are portable, less expensive and a more natural form of crop protection.
In 1987, Pest Control of India (PCI) became first company in India to commercially introduce pheromone technology for agricultural use by launching sex pheromone lures and traps for monitoring Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura. BCRL actively promoted the adoption of pheromones as monitoring tools, with a view to provide cost-effective and simple techniques to time application of biological control agents and bio-pesticides in IPM.
