Formulation of biological control agents for pest and disease management.

Abstract

Effective biological control of pests or diseases relies on the successful establishment and maintenance of a threshold population of suppressive organisms on the planting material, the soil or more generically the matrix, below which their efficacy is impaired or insufficient. So far, few biological control agents have achieved success under field conditions. Among the hundreds of organisms identified as potential biological pest control agents, only very few have resulted in providing commercially acceptable control of pests/diseases. Varying degrees of efficacy have been achieved in the laboratory, greenhouse, or even small plot trials with different preparations and varying levels of performance have been noted. Reviews have attributed this variability in performance to factors such as stability or poor viability, sensitivity to UV light, desiccation, and fluctuating environmental conditions [1]. Scientific literature has also noted that some of these disadvantages were minimized or even overcome by the addition of selected ingredients and by preparing the final product in a form that is specific to the pest/disease-crop complex. Most of the successes in formulations of biological preparations and our current knowledge base has resulted from diligent studies on very few biologically active microorganisms such as Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt), Bacillus subtilis, Trichoderma harzianum, and Metarrhizium anisopliae and are now being applied to the newer active ingredients.