ICRISAT IPM project 05: Biological approaches for
crop production and protection
Duration: 3 years (2005 –2007)
Purpose: To assess the role and effectiveness of
bacteria and fungi pathogenic to insect-pests (biopesticides), natural plant
products, and crop husbandry practices for sustainable crop production and
protection.
Background/description: Pre-modern
practices such as the use of organic manures to enhance soil fertility, and
herbal extracts to protect crops can be made more efficient through the application
of scientific knowledge that has been gained over the past five decades for
sustainable crop production and environment conservation. This has become quite
evident from the published information on the use of organic manures and
bio-pesticides for increasing crop production.
Using plant residue as surface mulch, application of beneficial
micro-organisms to mobilize soil nutrients, and foliar sprays of bio-pesticides
and herbal extracts to protect crops have been found to be as effective as the
conventional crop management practices. The major focus of our
present studies in this area are: i) identification of microorganisms from natural sources
with ability to kill insect-pests, ii) identification of locally available
herbs for managing insect-pests, iii) microbial germplasm
collection of agriculturally beneficial microorganisms and iv) on-farm
evaluation of best-bet protocol of protecting crops by using locally available
materials (pest tolerant cultivars, herbs, microorganisms and agronomy practices).
Agroecozone(s) and location(s): Crops and cropping systems
in the semi-arid regions.
Expected outputs: a) Microbial germplasm with agriculturally beneficial traits–biological
nitrogen fixation, P-solubilization plant-growth
promotion, antagonists of disease-causing micro-organisms and pathogens of
insect-pests, b) Locally available herbs with ability to kill insect pests and
their formulations for field-use, c) Low-cost best-bet protocols of protecting
different crops, and d) Low-cost, mass multiplication systems for
micro-organisms of interest.
Potential impact and beneficiaries: Use of biological approaches would reduce the cost of production, besides
resulting in a reduced use of synthetic pesticides and thus enhancing food
safety and environment conservation. Farmers in the semi-arid regions are the
immediate beneficiaries. A significant growth of businesses based on
bio-pesticides (both microbial and herbal) is also expected.
Partners: a) International Crops Research Institute
for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and b) NARS.
Development investor(s): Private-sector in
ICRISAT contact person(s)/principal investigator(s): OP Ruplea (O.Rupela@cgiar.org).