A team consisting of R Balamurugan and Mou Mandal from School of Chemistry, University of Hyderabad (UoH); C Kannan and Divya Mishra from ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research and Santosh K Misra and Piyush Kumar from the department of biological sciences and bioengineering from IIT- Kanpur have developed a novel nanoparticle-based bio-degradable-carbonoid-metabolite (BioDCM) that can protect agricultural crops from pathogens.
The invention of these novel nanoparticles would prove to act as shields to protect crops, especially rice crop, from infection and diseases.
“I congratulate all team members and their innovation will highly beneficial to farmers. May many more such innovations be worked upon to help our farming community”, said Prof. B J Rao, Vice-Chancellor, UoH.
The technology is a protective biological alternative that can be used to enhance crop protection against various diseases in rice crops. It is developed as a bio-degradable nanoparticle formulation by Dr. Misra’s group in IIT-K with a pyrone based metabolite isolated and characterised by the Prof. Balamurugan’s group of School of Chemistry, UoH from the fungal (Trichoderma asperellum) broth extract provided by Dr. Kannan’s group of ICAR-IIRR, Hyderabad. The bio-efficacies of the formulation were assessed by Dr. Kannan’s group.
Some key advantages of the invention are
- Precise target action
- Can be active at low concentration
- It is safe and biodegradable, unlike chemical pesticides and is fast in action
- The bio formulation protects the active compound from decomposition