NEW DELHI, JULY 3With India's first fully-tested neem pesticide ready to hit the commercial market, Indian companies are finally waking up to the potential of using neem in various formulations. Meanwhile work on other products like neem-based mosquito repellents and creams is on.

Managing Director of the National Tree Growers Co-operative Federation, Dr V K Misra, informed The Indian Express that their new Neem Biocide Unit will be commissioned soon.

``We hope to hit the market with our product Gronim within two months,'' he said. The company is tying up with Mumbai-based Excel Industries for marketing its products.

The Federation, an off-shoot of the hugely-successful Anand (Amul) co-operative movement, hopes to make it big in the market with a new formula that is stable and has a shelf-life of over a year.

Misra says that the technology for this product has been purchased from a Mumbai-based company. A patent application for it has been submitted to the Indian Patent Office.

According to Mishra, the product, which has been tested for its bio-efficacy by the Gujarat Agriculture University, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani and AP Agriculture University, Hyderabad, has been found effective against pests of several food, vegetable and cash crops under the integrated pest management (IPM)programme. The product is, in fact, an anti-feedant. When sprayed in appropriate concentrations, it discourages pests from attacking the crops. They die of starvation instead of poisoning as is the case with chemical pesticides.

``It also affects the reproductive cycle of the pests by delaying the hatching of eggs, wing formation, and so on,'' said Misra. Being a plant product, neem biocide does not have any poisonous residual effect on crops and helps farmers to produce and market toxin-free fruits and vegetables.Because of the heavy damage wrought by pests on crops, the use of toxic pesticides in agriculture became widespread and the ever-increasing demand led to the emergence and fast expansion of the pesticide industry in the country. However, the indiscriminate use of pesticides created more problems than solutions. Besides killing the pests, these ended up killing useful bio-life and disturbing the eco-system.

The problem of toxic hazards due to residues and environmental pollution also got aggravated. The ill-effects of over-reliance on pesticides alone and the growing realisation of the need for environment-friendly and sustainable agriculture ultimately became a national concern, leading to the development of the concept of IPM. Attempts, with mixed results, were made with an IPM programme.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.