ABSTRACT

Current growth in the development of biopesticides is both regulatory and technology driven. In the late 1970s, there was a growing awareness of the real and potential problems that synthetic chemical pesticides posed to human health and the environment as a whole. With this awareness, came more rigorous registration requirements that resulted into registration of fewer new active ingredients. Simultaneously, the average development cost per product got increased to $ 50 million. The problem has been compounded by the fact that pests became resistant to many pesticides, resulting in abandonment of the product or the need for higher application rates. On the other hand, improved understanding of biological processes and progress in genetic engineering techniques have given a new impetus to development ofbiopesticides.