Now, a ‘vaccine’ for plants to save pomegranate crop

The product, which he says functions differently from pesticides, has undergone field trials in several districts of the state.

Shendye, who has a doctorate degree from the National Chemical Laboratories (NCL), says the “vaccine” would be useful especially in protecting pomegranate crop.

Shendye’s Swasti Agro has won accolades from the department of bio-technology and will be featured as one of the companies in the fourth edition of Pune Connect over the weekend.

“Insecticides and pesticides do not enter the plant cells while the product developed by us do. Instead of acting only at the pests, the product boosts plant’s immune system and helps them fight pathogens (disease causing organisms) at the cellular level,” he said.

All it requires is to be sprayed on plants at the appropriate time.

Shendye said the product will be particularly helpful in fighting bacterial blight in pomegranate. India being the second largest producer of pomegranates, this disease affects incomes of lakhs of farmers. “Absence of any kit to diagnose the disease early is a major drawback in fighting the disease. In fact, by the time the disease manifests it would mean loss of around 30 per cent of the crop. Our product minimises the loss as it acts within the cellular level,” he said. He said the disease causes a loss of Rs 10,000 crore every year.

Field trials for the vaccine have been carried out with over 500 farmers in districts including Beed, Ahmednagar, Pune and Sangli. The product, for which Shendye has filed for a patent in January, has caught the attention of the department of bio-technology, Government of India which had given a grant for it.

Shendye said, “Agriculture being my passion, I earlier worked on means to increase soil fertility and the work was recognised by the US government as a workable model. I realized that convincing farmers would be difficult so I changed tracks. Even post my PhD I refused to go for post-doctoral studies to the US and instead decided to work in my own way,” he said.