Biopesticides Against Wilt, Rook-Knot and Disease Complex of Pigeonpea : Commercial deployment of biopesticides at low cost

This study has demonstrated that biological management of wilt, root-knot and disease complex can be successfully achieved with the application of the three developed biopesticides viz., Biowilt-X, Bionem-X and Biocomp-X and gives special focus on their deployment on a commercial scale. The used strians of biocontrol agents were found highly tolerant to the fungicides such as carbendazim (bavistin 50 WP), mancozeb (dithane M-45 75 WP), metalaxyl (apron 35 SD), captan (captaf 50 WP) and thiram (TMTD 75 WP) commonly used by farmers in India. Hence pesticidal contamination in soil will not affect their effectivenes. This has broadened the use of the present biopesticides in conjugation with pesticides under integrated disease management. The cost of the newly produced biopesticides is estimated Rs. 45/500 g pack (equivalent to US $ 1.0) which is much less than the cost of contemporary biopesticides available in the Indian market. Hence application cost of biopesticide for 1 hectare comes around Rs 100 (US $ 2.0) which is well affordable to small and poor farmers of India and other developing countries.