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.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akhtar MJ, Asghar HN, Shahzad K, Arshad M (2009) Role of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria applied in combination with compost and mineral fertilizers to improve growth and yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Pak J Bot 41(1):381–390
Asaka O, Shoda M (1996) Biocontrol of Rhizoctonia solani damping-off of tomato with Bacillus subtilis RB14. Appl Environ Microbiol 62(11):4081–4085
Ashraf M (2004) Some important physiological selection criteria for salt tolerance in plants. Flora Morphol Distrib Funct Ecol Plant 199(5):361–376
Ben Abdallah D, Frikha-Gargouri O, Tounsi S (2015) Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain 32a as a source of lipopeptides for biocontrol of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains. J Appl Microbiol 119(1):196–207
Falcäo L, Silva-Werneck J, Vilarinho B, da Silva J, Pomella A, Marcellino L (2014) Antimicrobial and plant growth-promoting properties of the cacao endophyte Bacillus subtilis ALB 629. J Appl Microbiol 116(6):1584–1592
Frankenberger JWT, Arshad M (1995) Microbial synthesis of auxins. Phytohormones in soils. Marcel Dekker, New York, pp 35–71
Garcia-Gutierrez RD, Zeriouh H, Cazorla FM, Tores JA, de Vicente A, Perez-Garcia A (2012) Isolation and selection of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria as inducers of systemic resistance in melon. Plant Soil 358(1–2):201–212
Glick BR (1995) The enhancement of plant growth by free-living bacteria. Can J Microbiol 41(2):109–117
Gupta S, Dikshit A (2010) Biopesticides: an ecofriendly approach for pest control. J Biopest 3:186
Hardoim PR, van Overbeek LS, van Elsas JD (2008) Properties of bacterial endophytes and their proposed role in plant growth. Trends Microbiol 16(10):463–471
Krebs B, Junge H, Ockhardt A, Hoding B, Heubner D, Erben U (1993) Bacillus subtilis-an effective biocontrol agent pesticide science, United Kingdom
Nakano MM, Zuber P (1990) Molecular biology of antibiotic production in Bacillus. Crit Rev Biotechnol 10(3):223–240
Ongena M, Jacques P (2008) Bacillus lipopeptides: versatile weapons for plant disease biocontrol. Trends Microbiol 16(3):115–125
Soytong K (1992) Biological control of tomato wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici using Chaetomium cupreum. Kasetsart J (Nat Sci) 26:310–313
Stabb EV, Jacobson LM, Handelsman J (1994) Zwittermicin A-producing strains of Bacillus cereus from diverse soils. Appl Environ Microbiol 60(12):4404–4412
Tiwari K, Thakur HK (2014) Diversity and molecular characterization of dominant Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (JNU-001) endophytic bacterial strains isolated from native Neem varieties of Sanganer region of Rajasthan. J Biodivers Biopros Dev 1(115):2
Vanittanakom N, Loeffler W, Koch U, Jung G (1986) Fengycin-a novel antifungal lipopeptide antibiotic produced by Bacillus subtilis F-29-3. J Antibiot 39(7):888–901
Weller DM, Cook RJ (1986) Suppression of root diseases of wheat by fluorescent pseudomonads and mechanisms of action iron, siderophores, and plant diseases. Springer, pp 99–107
Yamamoto S, Shiraishi S, Suzuki S (2015) Are cyclic lipopeptides produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens S13-3 responsible for the plant defence response in strawberry against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Lett. Appl Microbiol 60(4):379–386
Zhao H, Xu L, Su T, Jiang Y, Hu L, Ma F (2015) Melatonin regulates carbohydrate metabolism and defenses against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC 3000 infection in Arabidopsis thaliana. J Pineal Res 59(1):109–119
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Inam-ul-Haq, M., Hyder, S., Nisa, T., Bibi, S., Ismail, S., Ibrahim Tahir, M. (2019). Overview of Biopesticides in Pakistan. In: Sayyed, R., Reddy, M., Antonius, S. (eds) Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR): Prospects for Sustainable Agriculture. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6790-8_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6790-8_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6789-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6790-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)