Project description

Title: Commercialisation of Biopesticides in South-East Asia
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Regional project in South-East Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Laos
Lead executing agency: Department of Agriculture (DOA), Thailand
Overall term: November 2002 to October 2008

Context

The excessive use of synthetic pesticides pollutes the environment and damages the health of people in South-East Asia to a considerable degree. At the same time, there is increasing demand for organically produced, residue-free food in both international and local markets. Offering a better range of high-quality farm products can strengthen the position of farmers, local companies and other actors in the agricultural and food sectors. Although environmentally friendly biological products for pest control and improved agricultural production (biopesticides) have been developed and are promoted by governments as alternatives to synthetic pesticides, they are nevertheless underrepresented in the markets of South-East Asia. The causes of this include technological hurdles, complicated registration procedures, and a lack of experience in the private sector with marketing such products.

Objective

Environmentally friendly pest control – on the basis of model products such as biological rodent control and other innovative biopesticides - is better represented in the markets of South-East Asia than before.

Approach

Using the biological rodent control agent Sarcocystis as an example, small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries are being shown how they can successfully place biological products in the market. The GTZ project helps establish contacts between public research facilities, government offices and the private sector, assists in dealing with national and international registration requirements, and advises interested companies on questions of economic viability and product technology. Objectives and approach are in accord on several points with the new priority areas of the ASEAN Action Plan 2005-2010 (food safety, strengthening the private sector, protection of natural resources), which also explicitly calls for promotion of biopesticides.

Results achieved so far

The GTZ project, in cooperation with governmental research institutes and the private sector, has introduced a commercial biological product for rodent control into markets in Thailand and Vietnam. Registration procedures for marketing are pending in Indonesia and Laos. The spread of this technology eliminates the risk of poisoning for rice farmers and other users of chemical rodenticides, previously a frequent occurrence. Used in product demonstrations with rice, biocontrol achieved yield increases of about 20 percent at competitive cost.

Another project initiative is the market launch of environmentally sound methods for pest control and yield increase in the economically important cultivation of oil palms and cocoa. Increases in yields with environmentally friendly methods, on the one hand, reduce the pressure to sacrifice ever more natural forest land to plantation farming and, on the other, lead to substantial competitive advantages for the producers in export markets, such as higher cocoa prices. In cooperation with international industry (International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association, IBMA) and local companies in Indonesia, registration procedures for two biological products for insect control (lure technology and a microbial product) were successful initiated. The authorities have already approved the sale of lure technology, which has led to significant investments by local private enterprises in marketing the product for oil palm cultivation.  Public promotional campaigns by the project in Sumatra led to the signing of a contract with the local plantation industry for the use of biological rodent control on 2,000 hectares of oil palm plantation. If successful, there is a prospect of increasing the area to 20,000 hectares, with a potential total of five million hectares in Sumatra alone.

The dialogue with the private sector and the regulatory authorities in the individual countries in conjunction with the registration procedure has led to a more informed perspective and significantly higher awareness on the part of the participants of the technological possibilities of biopesticides, as well as of issues concerning registration. Through the project’s intermediary services, representatives of the regulatory authorities in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand have agreed to be advised by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regarding biopesticides, and to work out a plan for simplifying and harmonising registration.

Further information

• Local Website of the Project
  www.biopesticides-seasia.net