Honey Traps

Today’s find has been the pheromone-based pest control traps made by Bangalore-based  Barrix Agro Sciences.

Barrix Agro Sciences is a start-up founded by Lokesh Makam-an MBA in pharmaceuticals management who had worked for companies such as Ranbaxy, Dabur and Himalaya and  Mayil Vaganan who had worked at pharma majors like Cadila Pharmaceuticals and Ranbaxy, before changing their focus to agriculture.The company was set up in 2011 with their personal savings of 23 lakh.

Fruit and vegetable farming are simple ways of making more from smaller land holdings.And the greatest challenge you will face in bringing up a good crop are the fruit and vegetable flies. They create holes in the fruits and vegetables and make them unfit for sale, You end up spending about 50,000 per hectare on pesticides.

The problem with pesticides is that besides being expensive, they  are washed away by the rains. The pheromones developed by Barrix are artificially synthesized smelling agents that attract pests. Instead of eating the crops, the pests are attracted to the pheromones in the traps and so can be trapped and destroyed.

These traps reduce the damages in mango yields by 50%.

The pheromone traps, which cost about 3,200 to install in each hectare, are much cheaper than the pesticides. Also, they are not hazardous and do not contaminate the ground water and soil.

Barrix also makes plant-based organic products that protect crops from fungi and bacteria.