Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Agriculture in South Asia Editors W.A.R.T. Wickramaarachchi SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) Dhaka, Bangladesh Malvika Chaudhary Plantwise Asia, CABI-South Asia New Delhi, India Jagadeesh Patil ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, India SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) i Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Agriculture in South Asia SAARC Regional Expert Consultation on Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Agriculture in South Asia, 21-23 August 2017, ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, India Editors W.A.R.T. Wickramaarachchi SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), Dhaka, Bangladesh Malvika Chaudhary Plantwise Asia, CABI-South Asia, New Delhi, India Jagadeesh Patil ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR) Bengaluru, India December 2017 @ 2017 SAARC Agriculture Centre Published by the SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, BARC Complex, Farmgate, New Airport Road, Dhaka -1215, Bangladesh (www.sac.org.bd) All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher Citation Wickramaarachchi, W.A.R.T., Chaudhary, M. and Patil, J. (Eds). 2017. Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Agriculture in South Asia. SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 226 pp Available online through www.sac.org.bd This book contains the papers and proceedings of the SAARC Regional Expert Consultation on Facilitating microbial pesticides use in agriculture in South Asia jointly organized by SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC), ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR) and The Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) at National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, India from 21-23 August 2017. The experts for country paper presentations were the representative of their respective governments. Other experts selected for technical paper presentations have spoken in their personal capacities. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not imply any opinion whatsoever on the part of SAC especially concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. ISBN 978-984-34-3449-4 Cover Design: Mafruha Begum Price US$ 10 for SAARC countries US$ 50 for other countries Printed by Natundhara Printing Press, 277/3, Elephant Road (1st Floor), Kataban Dhal, Dhaka-1205, Bangladesh ii Foreword South Asia’s agriculture is highly diverse in term of farm size, crops and productivity due to diversity of geographic and climate in the region. Crop protection in South Asia is predominately based on chemical pesticides in spite of its adverse effects of human health and environment. Concurrent with the removal of some of the highly toxic compounds has been the development of alternative crop protection approaches such as integrated pest management (IPM) which can accommodate the use of microbial pesticides as an integral component. Though there has been considerable research and development activities focused on microbial pesticides by research institutions of SAARC countries, the registered products coming out and extent of agricultural lands under microbial pesticide use is negligible in most countries except India. The increasing consumer demand for health food commodities without pesticide residues and global export horticultural standards are the drivers for microbial pesticide use. However, the microbial pesticide use in South Asia is lagged behind compared to other regions. The consultation was organized to understand the modalities which support the use of microbial pesticides in South Asia. National Focal Point Experts from SAARC Member Countries and a couple of invited experts shared their knowledge and experiences towards the facilitating of microbial pesticide use in the South Asia. It was evident that production and availability of microbial pesticides are not issues in most cases. But there is technology gap on storage, packaging, delivery and application. Further regulatory hurdles, registration formalities, Intellectual Property Rights, export/import, political interference and several other concerns are required due attention and regional harmonization for facilitating the microbial pesticide uses. I strongly believe this publication titled “Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Agriculture in South Asia” is a comprehensive overview of microbial pesticide production, registration, regulation and use in South Asia and bring out value recommendations for facilitating the microbial pesticide use in South Asia. Dr S.M. Bokhtiar Director SAARC Agriculture Centre iii iv Contents FORWARD iii ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS Chapter 1 Facilitating the Microbial Pesticide Use in 1 Agriculture in South Asia: A Regional Overview W.A.R.T. Wickramaarachchi COUNTRY PAPERS Chapter 2 Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in 38 Afghanistan Ghulam Mohammad Saedi Chapter 3 Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in 54 Bangladesh Kbd Amitava Das Chapter 4 Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Bhutan 66 Pema Tobagy Chapter 5 Development and Use of Microbial 79 Bio-pesticides in India Rajan, Mohan, Jagadeesh Patil, Mahesh S. Yandigeri and Aravindaram Kandan Chapter 6 Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Maldives 107 Hussain Farah Chapter 7 Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Nepal 116 Dinesh Babu Tiwari Chapter 8 Current Status of Microbial Pesticide Use in Sri 132 Lanka U.S.K. Abeysinghe INVITED PAPERS 150 ABSTRACTS OF INVITED PRESENTATIONS 182 Chapter 9 Proceedings of Consultation 198 Concept Note 212 Program 215 List of Participants 218 Glimpses of Consultation 221 v Chapter 1 Facilitating Microbial Pesticide Use in Agriculture in South Asia: A Regional Overview W.A.R.T. Wickramaarachchi SAARC Agriculture Centre, BARC Complex, Farmgate Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh Email: [email protected] Abstract Reliance on chemical pesticides for crop production has caused several detrimental effects such as pesticide resistance, pest resurgence and outbreak of secondary pests which reflect the repeated and over use of chemical pesticides to achieve the expected level of control. To overcome the hazards associated with chemical pesticides, the use of bio- pesticides which are derived from plants and microorganisms is increasingly being adopted. Out of all the bio-pesticides used today, microbial bio-pesticides constitute the largest group of broad-spectrum bio-pesticides. Microbial control agents based on naturally occurring fungi, bacteria, viruses or nematodes have offered some realistic alternatives to chemical pesticides. Microbial pesticides have gained attention because of their relatively low toxicity, potential for local production and compatibility with smallholder farming. However, the widespread use of microbial pesticides in South Asia has been restricted owing to various constraints at the developmental, registration and production levels. Efficacy of microbial pesticide in field is highly dependent on the environment conditions. There are potential problems associated with contamination, formulation potency, attenuation of pesticide activity and shelf life. To deal with all these aspects require equipment, expertise, material and capital. Microbial pesticides are regulated by systems designed originally for chemical pesticides that have created market entry barriers by imposing burdensome costs on the microbial pesticide industry. Regulatory authorities generally require bulk information on a microbial pesticide for characterization, assessing its potential risks on human and environment and confirming its effectiveness against pest. There are no properly defined and harmonized regulatory procedures for microbial pesticides in most of South Asian counties. Lack of regional harmonization in enabling regulations is one of the most important barriers to the wider implementation of microbial pesticides. Couple of areas has to be strengthened for facilitating and microbial pesticide development and adaptation. They include increasing the product range aiming the major plant protection issues, development 1 of resilient microbes, ensuring the quality and quantity available in the market, improving storage and quality control, introducing policies to promote microbial pest control strategies, ensuring favorable intellectual property rights for researching, create a healthy regulatory environment, regulatory harmonization across the region and encouraging public private partnerships to attract more SMEs into the microbial pesticide industry. Key words: Microbial pesticides, registration, regulation, commercialization Introduction The world population is projected to grow by 34 percent from 6.8 billion today to 9.1 billion in 2050. In order to meet the demand of increasing population, the global demand for food, feed and fiber is expected to grow by 70 percent while crops may also be increasingly used for bio- energy and other industrial purposes. It is estimated that demand for food in South Asian region will increase by 40 percent by 2050 due to rapid population growth along with climate volatility. At present, South Asia is home for 27 present of global population. Further, 40 percent of poor people and 35 percent