Insect Pests of Fruits, Plantation, Medicinal & Aromatic Crops

3. Biotechnological approaches

Biotechnology has provided new avenues for management of insect pets and it holds great potential to be included in IPM system.

• The low toxicity of proteinase inhibitors and Bt alpha-endotoxin as compared to conventional insecticides would reduce the selection pressure nd may slow down the development of resistance.
• Since all plant parts including growing points would remain covered with toxins, dependence on weather for efficacy of the sprays would be eliminated.
• Since toxins will always be there, so there will be no need of continuous monitoring of pests.
• Transgenic plant would also provide protection to those plant parts which are difficult to be treated with pesticides. Thus, transgenics may prove useful for controlling bollworms and borers which are difficult to control by means of insecticides.
• The cost of application in the form of equipment and labour will be nil or negative.
• The development cost is only fraction of the cost of development of conventional pesticides.
• There would be no problem of contamination in the form of drift and groundwater contamination.
• Insecticidal activity would be restricted to those insects which actually attack the plants. Transgenic plants would be safe to non-target species and human beings.
• Transgenic plants will have inbuilt resistance to various insects replacing some of the current pesticide usage with protection which is intrinsically biodegradable, thus reducing the use of chemical insecticides and minimizing the problem of environmental pollution.