: Natco Pharma plans to launch its first green label Pheromone product for management of Pink Bollworm in cotton crop during Kharif season this year.
The generic drugmaker, which two years ago diversified into agrichemicals, said this announcing foray into Pheromone based mating disruption technology for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solution in the country.
The company’s Crop Health Science (CHS) division is working with ATGC Biotech (ATGC) for the technology. A release said ATGC is a science based innovative technology company concentrating on developing new biosafe molecules and tools to protect diverse crops from insect pests, in collaboration with US based agricultural biotech company ISCA.
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Natco will launch the Pheromone product, for management of Pink Bollworm, under the brand Natmate PBW. This is the first pheromone-based indigenously manufactured product for mating disruption that received approval from Central Insecticide Board (CIB), the release said.
Pink Bollworm posed a major challenge in the past few years to cotton farmers across India. The impact on the quality and yield of crop is significant and often severely affects livelihood of small farmers. Natmate PBW will help farmers and seed producers in developing an Insect Resistance Management (IRM) plan and preserve benefits of Bt traits in cotton as well, the release said.