Developed in a research partnership and sustainably promoted by SMEs in South Asia

The development and effective transfer of a cost effective, sustainable, non-pesticide based IPM technology for use in eggplant to farmers in South Asia has been recognised by the Ryutaro Hashimoto APFED Award 2008 Silver Prize for Good Practice given to Dr S. N. Alam, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, at a recent award ceremony. This achievement was the culmination of several research programmes funded by the Department for International Development, UK, European Commission and latterly the Government of Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh eggplant, or brinjal is an affordable vegetable available to all and represents 40% of all vegetables produced in the country by weight. However, in order to produce the crop farmers were using excessive levels of insecticides to control key pests, notably the brinjal fruit and shoot borer. A survey of farmers showed that up to 32% of cultivation costs were associated with insecticides and damage levels of up to 70% were sustained even after applying insecticides.