Overview of Biopesticides in Pakistan

Abstract

Agriculture is a vital sector of Pakistan’s economy and accounted for about 30% of GDP according to government estimates. The sector directly supports three-quarters of the country’s population, employs half the labor force, and contributes a large share of foreign exchange earnings. Agriculture is badly affected by various pests such as insects, weeds, plant pathogens, and nematodes. In Pakistan, the agrochemical industry has been witnessing a relatively steady to high growth, which has been primarily attributed to advancements in the pesticides and fertilizer industries. Nearly 71% of Pakistan’s pesticide market is import dependent and annually imports approximately 80,000 tons of pesticides. The current use of pesticides in Pakistan is about 1,30,000 metric tons, of which approximately 90% is applied to cotton, rice, fruits, and vegetables. The wide use of pesticides in agriculture has contaminated the highly value-added commodities like rice, cotton, vegetables, and fruits. Due to contamination and low quality, prices in international markets have shrunken. Recently biopesticides have received much attention as an alternative to chemical pesticides. These comprise living microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, or nematodes) or the metabolites produced by them. These are applied as pesticides in the form of sprays, dust, liquid drenches, liquid concentrates, wettable powders, or granules. The investigation of microbes and their bio-products/metabolites as pesticides dates to the discovery of Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) in 1902. Since then, work on the formulation of microbial pesticides has witnessed many ups and downs. This was the time when the use of chemical pesticides was gaining popularity among the farming communities due to their immediate and positive results. This factor visibly influenced the commercial use of microbial biopesticides in agriculture. Several countries are adopting a stringent approach when it comes to imports, with a special focus on regulating the amount of pesticide residues. As a result, the demand for regulated food safety and quality is increasing, which is another reason for growers to adopt biopesticides in their farming practices. The market is segmented based on the product type, formulation type, ingredient type, mode of application, crop and non-crop application, and geography. By the product type, the market is segmented into bio-herbicides, bio-insecticides, and bio-fungicides, with application in both crop-based and non-crop-based categories. Biopesticides are likely to witness faster growth (in double digits) in comparison to synthetic chemicals. The present headline is on the development and use of the biopesticides and the drawbacks of chemical pesticides. Their use is increasing slowly at the rate of 8% per annum, based on the numerous classes of various microbial pesticides. Although microbial pesticides are some of the anciently YIB (yield-increasing bacteria) in China and Russia, nowadays genetically modified microbes and their metabolites are frequently used for the biocontrol of pests and diseases. Major advantages of microbial biopesticides are:

• 1 The microbes used in preparation of these biopesticides are nontoxic and nonpathogenic to wildlife, humans, and other non-organisms.

• 2 These are highly specific to a single group of insect pests and thus have no adverse impact on other beneficial living organism.

• 3 These could be employed where necessary with synthetic pesticides.

• 4 Their residues are harmless, and these could be used at the time of harvest.

• 5 Applied microbes may establish in pest population and could be helpful in the maintenance of their population below the threshold level.

Microbial biopesticides are being used successfully on large scales in China, the United States, Australia, and many other countries of the world to break the trust of synthetic pesticides’ use in agriculture. But in Pakistan, no efforts have been made to boost their use in agriculture. Commercial production of such kinds of biopesticides may prove a good step toward organic agriculture and help in the production of pesticide contamination-free agriproducts and derived biopesticides.