Contamination of water supplies due to pesticide run-off is a major problem in Brazil. This is particularly severe in cotton-growing areas because of the large amounts of pesticide used against insect pests such as the boll weevil. Furthermore, the cost of pesticides required has lead to a halving of the area of cotton grown with a consequent loss of income for farmers, particularly in the poorer North East of the country. This project brings together UK and Brazilian commercial and academic partners with the aim of developing a lure-and-kill technology for control of boll weevil and other pests. This contains a pheromone to attract specifically the target pest and a low loading of insecticide or biopesticide to kill it. The devices will be constructed of novel biodegradable polymers so that they are simple and cheap to manufacture and deploy and do not need to be collected in at the end of the season. The devices will be field tested in Brazil and registered by the Brazilian partners. Their use should greatly reduce the amount of insecticide applied to cotton and give reduced contamination of groundwater, better and cheaper pest control and improved livelihoods for cotton growers.

The project aims to develop a technology for an organic natural based pesticide for use in agriculture and horticulture plus the homes and gardens market. The basis of this research is replacing steps in a chemical synthesis that uses a toxic metal catalyst by employing biological processes using enzymes, and to scale this up to a route workable for industrial production. The starting material is a sustainable natural oil available in large quantities at an economic price grown in third world countries. The separation of the oil into the wanted starting component uses recyclable chemicals and the by product has immediate industrial uses. The end result would be a ‘green’ product produced in a ‘green’ and sustainable way. This has wide application helping to protect the European food chain whilst contributing to the desired EU target of reducing the use of synthetic pesticides. There would be a large potential export market which the Industrial partner is well experienced to develop.

To develop a new pesticide, reflecting changes in EU law, and embed processes, skills, and risk assessment procedures from laboratory to commercialisation.