THE Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Partners of the Americas on Tuesday, held a lecture pertaining to natural pesticides at the Kuru Kuru Cooperative College, D’Urban Backlands. Partners of the Americas farmer-to-farmer programme has the main aim of providing famers in Guyana with resources on various farming techniques from the united States.

Field Officer of Partners of the Americas, Jermaine Joseph, said: “We bring experts from the United States of America who volunteer their services in specialised areas in farming.” He explained that the organisation employs a needs-analysis system to determine for which specific area they would require a specialist .

“Coming out of the last needs analysis, the focus was on natural pesticides production, since we all know today a lot more persons are interested in healthy lifestyles and healthy eating and they want to do away with the synthetic fertilisers; things like synthetic pesticides and so on, so we requested to have someone who specialises in natural pesticide production and Dr. Dilip Nandwani volunteered to share his expertise with us,” said Joseph.
Specialist in Organic/Natural Pesticide Production, Dr. Dilip Nandwani during his session at the Kuru Kuru College, spoke about locally available plants such as the neem plants that possess pesticidal properties, how they can be harnessed, prepared and turned into natural pesticides.

“Many plants and minerals have insecticidal properties; that is, they are toxic to insects. Botanical insecticides are naturally occurring chemicals (insect toxins) extracted or derived from plants or minerals. They are also called natural insecticides,” said Nandwani.

He noted garlic extract, Compost tea, Neemastra or “neem” as some natural pesticides. He explained one of the uses of “neem,” saying, “Neem is quite effective against armyworm, one of the most devastating pests of food crops in the western hemisphere. Azadirachtin in extremely low concentrations – a mere 10 mg per hectare – inhibits the pests.”
Nandwani further explained that botanical pesticides are the major alternatives to the conventional synthetic chemical pesticides due to various advantages over conventional pesticides.

Partners of the Americas believes that the knowledge shared through this programme will change the landscape of farming, since one of the biggest challenges in food production is pest and disease control. The increase of synthetic pesticides came on the market as a means of combating that, so there is a major benefit to the farmers moving to a more natural process.

The organisation held workshops with the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), Permaculture, and several other agriculture-based organisations as a way to train and build capacity throughout Guyana.