Helicoverpa armigera are caterpillars that devour crop plants and cause extensive loss to farmers.

Interestingly, the larvae of Helicoverpa provide a priceless environmental service. It can be used to produce a biopesticide that can be used to protect crops from Helicoverpa armigera itself.

ICRISAT has given a boost to a traditional technology and has been able to establish biopesticide production units in 76 villages in India and 20 in Nepal in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems and Non-Governmental Organisations, through a World Bank funded project.

Farmers have been traditionally shaking crop plants to dislodge Helicoverpa larvae. Using these larvae for the multiplication of the Nucleo Polyhedrosis Virus (NPV), a biopesticide that kills Helicoverpa, is the m odern twist that ICRISAT provided.

The technology for NPV production involves collecting the larvae and feeding them with an NPV-infected diet till they die due to infection.

The NPV biopesticide is extracted from the dead larvae, and can be sprayed on crops to manage Helicoverpa attack.

With the high impact that the biopesticide, strengthened with other eco-friendly activities, had in the 96 villages of India and Nepal in the past two years, farmers reduced the spraying of chemical pesticide by 65 per cent in cotton, 24 per cent in pigeonpea and 21 per cent in chickpea.

According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, through the biopesticide production project in India and Nepal, ICRISAT and partners have reached the know-how and do-how for the production of an effective biopesticide to the hands of the villagers.

For further information, contact Dr. G.V. Ranga Rao at g.rangarao@cgiar.org

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