Isolation and Characterization of Mosquitocidal Bacillus Thuringensis, Analysis of Its Crystal Proteins and Plasmid

Abstract

Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture sector employs nearly 58% of India’s workforce and constitutes 22% of total Indian economy. With sowing and building up at a rapid pace for the majority of crops, crop production is also anticipated to increase by 2.5 % during the next financial years to come. The growth in the GDP of agriculture and allied sectors is anticipated at 3.2% during the financial year 2009, as stated by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper (Agribusiness in India, 2009). Our country is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, cotton, silk, peanuts and the third largest producer of tobacco. India is the largest fruit producer, accounting for 10% of the world fruit production. It is the leading producer of bananas, sapotas and mangoes (Indian agriculture ,2008) Out of 750,000 identified species , about 10,000 species of insects are important as pest throughout the world. Over 1,800 species of weeds out of the known 30,000 cause serious economic loss. About 15,000 species of nematodes produce more than 1,500 serious deleterious effects on plants. Over 1,00,000 species of pests destroy food which could be food for 135 million people. The word pest has no biological meaning. Pests are organisms that diminish the value of resources in which we are interested. In India, crops are affected by over 200 major pests, 100 plant diseases, hundreds of weeds and other pests like nematodes, harmful birds, rodents and the like. About 4,800 million rats cause havoc in India. Approximately, 30% of Indian crop yield potential is being lost due to insects, disease and weeds which in terms of quantity would mean 30 million tones of food grain. The value of total loss has been placed at Rs 50,000 million, represents about 18% of the gross national agriculture production. (Manncsa, 2009).