Question

Nucleopolyhedroviruses are being used now a days in agriculture. Why ?

Answer 1

In recent years, the growing public concern over potential health

hazards of synthetic pesticides has led to the exploration of alternative pest management options, such as adoption of “bio-pesticides” as an eco-friendly measure for pest suppression. Suppression has come up as one of the effective tools in IPM approach. Bio-pesticides are developed from natural plant or animal origin, which can intervene in the life cycle of insect pests in such a way that the crop damage is minimized. Nucleopolyhedroviruses are one of the biopesticides. They are a part of the family of baculoviruses, i.e. a virus affecting insects, predominantly moths and butterflies so it has been used as a pesticide in agriculture now.