Pesticide-free crop is a goal for agriculturalists, however cost-ineffectiveness has always been a limitation. Scientists and researchers in Bengaluru have formulated a matrix or powder formula that can make the pheromone-based pest control method almost eight times cheaper.
Pesticide-free crop is a goal for agriculturalists, however cost-ineffectiveness has always been a limitation. Scientists and researchers in Bengaluru have formulated a matrix or powder formula that can make the pheromone-based pest control method almost eight times cheaper.
The pheromone method works like this farmers purchase a vial of the semiochemical (a pheromone released by an organism that affects the behaviour of other substances) that are specific to particular insects. Semiochemicals synthesised in laboratories attract male species for mating. The substance is put in a dispenser that economically distributes its flow over months. As the female insect gets attracted to the dispenser, a sticky trap awaits them, explained Abishek Garg, a PhD student from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research (JNCAR), Bengaluru.
He said that farmers use a dispenser named rubber septa, which requires 400 to 700 milligrams of the semiochemical and lasts for three months. Since the solution costs up to Rs 60,000 per gram, it becomes an expensive alternative to pesticides, Garg added.
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