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Team:Nairobi/Project
From 2011.igem.org
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Green pesticides
Pests cause a great loss to major agricultural products and various useful plants every year. Currently , chemicals are the main means used to curb the near catastrophic effects of pests. However, their use results in the destruction of ecosystems, underground water-contamination, increased toxins in agricultural products and the prevalence of highly resistant pests. Drastic efforts taken to curb the afore mentioned problems include the signing of agreements among various countries in order to reduce the use of the organic pesticides by as much as 50%. However, the ‘green’ mode of action , sustainability , and cost effective nature of most bio-pesticides, makes them the favoured frontier in the war against crop pests.
Our project involves the invention of a novel biopesticide by genetically engineering an entomopathogenic fungus to come up with a strain that exhibits higher levels of insecticidal activity, and that is effective against a wider range of insects. The constant target species are crop pests and house pests.
