To address the above challenge, the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Innovation Lab at Virginia Tech, with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), facilitated workshops and knowledge exchange visits between India, which has been producing and marketing bio-pesticides that include Trichoderma, Beauveria and Metarhizium, and Nepal and Bangladesh to learn about the usage of bio-pesticides. IPM is a proven, efficient method to fight pests and diseases of crops, of which pheromone lures and traps and bio-pesticides are integral components. These products help to reduce the use of chemical pesticides, which have adverse impacts on human health and environment. The aim of this initiative is to develop business partnerships between the countries and catalyse a productive and healthy environment for controlling crop pests and diseases.

This initiative aims to achieve increased crop productivity, leading to reduced poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2), by reducing or eliminating use of toxic pesticides. The initiative improves human and environmental health (SDGs 3, 6, 14, 15), enhances business activities that lead to economic growth (SDG 8) and creates collaboration and development partnerships between the three countries (SDG 17).

Both Bangladesh and Nepal are resource-poor countries, and IPM products are not available locally. The IPM Innovation Lab arranged for entrepreneurs from Bangladesh and Nepal to visit India to meet with one another, develop contacts, and observe the productivity of IPM products developed by different companies. Cross-country travels and in-country workshops connected partners. The IPM Innovation Lab educated farmers in both countries on the benefits of using IPM products and developed local demand for them. Setting up pheromone lures and traps in farmers’ fields led to recognizing the occurrence of pests and taking timely action to prevent crop loss, and the use of bio-pesticides reduced the need to use chemical pesticides, thus reducing water and soil contamination and improving human and environmental health.

As a result of the activity, farmers use methyl eugenol and cue lures for the monitoring of fruit flies and controlling mango and cucurbit crop fields. The incidence of fall armyworm, South American tomato leaf miner, tomato fruit worm, cut worm, banana weevil, sweet potato weevil, eggplant fruit and shoot borer, okra fruit borer and other pests are monitored using pheromone traps, and timely interventions are conducted. Two companies in each of these countries are producing bio-pesticides. The number of dealers who import and supply the IPM products have increased in both countries.

The IPM Innovation Lab, through collaboration with organizations such as Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre (PQPMC), has trained over 1,000 private sector providers on South American tomato leafminer technologies in Nepal alone. In Nepal, at least 153,000 households have been introduced to IPM products. From 2013 to 2017, the IPM Innovation Lab conducted 20 awareness workshops on the pest, bringing together participants from 50 different countries. IPM practices, including the implementation of pheromone traps, biopesticides and other sustainable solutions, have created valuable economic impacts.

The concept of IPM began in California in the 1960s and has become highly effective, sustainable and economical. Due to the IPM Innovation Lab’s promotion of triangular trade and implementation, Bangladesh can export some bio-pesticides to Nepal, which in turn can assist Bhutan in IPM. The promotion has also led to policy changes in pesticide registration and regulation, ensuring the sustainability of the initiative. People in these countries have become aware of the adverse effects of chemical pesticides.

This programme has been implemented with the extramural support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID); however, its extension to Bhutan was a bilateral collaboration between Nepal and Bhutan. The IPM Innovation Lab is also extending this programme to Cambodia. The promotion of policy changes in bio-pesticide registration, developing a business case, and educating farmers on benefits of bio-pesticides are the conditions that need to be met for its replication in Cambodia and other developing countries.