Exploring different Natural Plant Extracts based Biopesticides - Could they possibly expand the toolkit of organic farmers?
With the above question in mind, I started my journey on this project. It was during the initial Covid lockdown time in India when I was looking to work on something that resonates in my life. Because of my past experience with organic farming and as part of my current job, organic farmers always ask me to recommend something different than neem based (Azadirachta indica) pesticides to control pests and diseases. Therefore, I decided to work on plant extracts that could be used as Biopesticides. I then remembered the WFSC Ambassador Program which supports this kind of projects. That’s how this fabulous journey started and now led to this blog post!
Brainstorming with ideas…
Over a period of few weeks, I started collecting data on potential plant extracts that can be used as pesticides from various research articles and other sources. I rented a lab workbench and greenhouse space in the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru (UASB) and started working over weekends and during my free time. Little did I know about my amateur research acumen at the time! As time progressed, I started in vitro bioassays against a few crop diseases of tomato, citrus, and other species. I learnt different plant pathology techniques and it really took some time to get some expertise.
In-vitro bioassay against citrus scab fungi. From left to right: control (no fungicide, complete growth of fungi), Carbendazim + Mancozeb (commercial fungicide), Vetiver, Patcholi, Camphor oils (no fungi growth).
In-vitro bioassay against leaf spot bacteria in chili. From left to right: control (no bactericide, complete growth of bacteria), Streptocycline (commercial bactericide), garlic, Camphor, Patchouli oils (no bacteria growth for 10mm radius).
One day I was working on pesticidal properties of eucalyptol (major component of Eucalyptus oil) because I thought it could be used as an herbicide due to its allelopatheic properties. This was exciting, I made some trials, and the results were interesting. Then I searched some research articles and found out that there are some studies on this aspect! Although it was a sad discovery that this has already been implemented, I was wondering why it is not used commercially? This led me to think about and work on how we can develop these extracts as commercial pesticides or herbicides.
Getting more serious about the idea!
With all these experiences, I decided to found a start-up that focuses on developing these plant extracts as commercial pesticides. I started the company Organismic Technologies – which in my meaning, turns out be - technologies that consider the wholesome or complete aspects of organisms, ecology and the environment.
In the next stage, we (yes, it has become a team!) are working on the stability aspects, adjuvants, combinations, and various formulation types of different plant extracts. The goal is that they can be used easily at farm scale. In the coming months we are initiating field trials of some potential products in collaboration with the UASB Centre for Organic Farming.
Greenhouse trials on powdery mildew disease of tomato.
This project which stared as a small study during lockdown time, has now become a start-up with a small team and being selected for final stages of a couple of grants and competitions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Naveen Hiremath is a Sustainable Agriculturist. His interests cover organic agriculture, sustainability, food production and synthetic biology. He is currently working as an Agronomist for Givaudan, based in India. He is also the founder of Organismic Technologies, a startup working on plant based biopesticides and biosynthesis. He loves to travel and read books in his free time.
Thanks to the WFSC and the Mercator Foundation for providing funds for this project. It was helpful to turn a mere thought into a study, a project and then into a company. Hopefully, we will come out with some good products in the next few years…