Organization supervises all processes. More recently, volunteer farmers will receive
a three-year persuasive standard if the MRLs of their products are below defined
limits (Environment and Food Safety Office 2019).
The responsibility of determining the health of products has been delegated to
regional health departments according to article 28 of the Iran Plant Protection
Implementing Regulations. This article states “regional health departments shall be
required to examine fruits, cucurbits, vegetables and other products before they are
marketed and if pesticide residues are found, to inform the city hall or other
authorities concerned with the matter and prohibit their sale”. By law, Ministry of
Agriculture-Jahad is responsible for supervising production of safe products and Iran
National Standards Organization has a contribution in granting the persuasive
standard certification. Obtaining persuasive standard is now voluntary and there is
no legal obligation for the growers to follow the instructions for producing safe
products. However, it seems that the growers have to adopt this program because of
changes in the society trends towards using safer food. This means that the demand
for biopesticides including microbial ones is growing and the market size will
continuously expand. The old chemical pesticides producers along with many new
companies perceive this fact and increase their investment on biopesticides.
In spite of numerous worldwide researches on microbial pesticides, only a small
fraction of them pass the commercialization process successfully. These few pesticides have mainly been introduced to the USA, Latin and South America, and Europe
(Thakore 2006; Glare et al. 2012; Dutta 2015; Arthurs and Dara 2019) while the
share of Iran is very scant (Moosavi and Zare 2016; Karimi et al. 2019). In recent
years, country-wide research on microbial biopesticides has increased rapidly but till
now only 20 products (occasionally with the same microorganism ingredient) have
been produced by Iranian companies which some of them have not completed their
registration process yet (Table 14.1). However, there is a hope that the number could
increase in the near future.
The leading companies producing microbial pesticides are as follows: Biorun,
Greenlife Biotech Co., Green Biotech Co., MehrAsia Biotechnology Company, and
Sadra Biotech Co. The active ingredients of the available microbial pesticides
(registered or in the final process of registration) in Iran consist mainly of bacteria
and fungi.
14.3.1 Bacterial Biopesticides
Four groups of bacteria can typically be utilized as biopesticides. These four types
consist of I) bacteria that produce crystalliferous spore (like Bacillus thuringiensis),
II) obligatory parasitic bacteria (like Bacillus popilliae), III) facultative parasitic
bacteria (like Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and IV) opportunistic parasitic bacteria
(like Serratia marcesens) (Koul 2011).
The most popular bacterium used in Iranian microbial biopesticides is Bacillus
thuringiensis (Moosavi and Zare 2016). Many subspecies and varieties of
B. thuringiensis have been identified globally (Osman et al. 2015). This spore
14 Microbial Biopecticides: Opportunities and Challenges
539
a three-year persuasive standard if the MRLs of their products are below defined
limits (Environment and Food Safety Office 2019).
The responsibility of determining the health of products has been delegated to
regional health departments according to article 28 of the Iran Plant Protection
Implementing Regulations. This article states “regional health departments shall be
required to examine fruits, cucurbits, vegetables and other products before they are
marketed and if pesticide residues are found, to inform the city hall or other
authorities concerned with the matter and prohibit their sale”. By law, Ministry of
Agriculture-Jahad is responsible for supervising production of safe products and Iran
National Standards Organization has a contribution in granting the persuasive
standard certification. Obtaining persuasive standard is now voluntary and there is
no legal obligation for the growers to follow the instructions for producing safe
products. However, it seems that the growers have to adopt this program because of
changes in the society trends towards using safer food. This means that the demand
for biopesticides including microbial ones is growing and the market size will
continuously expand. The old chemical pesticides producers along with many new
companies perceive this fact and increase their investment on biopesticides.
In spite of numerous worldwide researches on microbial pesticides, only a small
fraction of them pass the commercialization process successfully. These few pesticides have mainly been introduced to the USA, Latin and South America, and Europe
(Thakore 2006; Glare et al. 2012; Dutta 2015; Arthurs and Dara 2019) while the
share of Iran is very scant (Moosavi and Zare 2016; Karimi et al. 2019). In recent
years, country-wide research on microbial biopesticides has increased rapidly but till
now only 20 products (occasionally with the same microorganism ingredient) have
been produced by Iranian companies which some of them have not completed their
registration process yet (Table 14.1). However, there is a hope that the number could
increase in the near future.
The leading companies producing microbial pesticides are as follows: Biorun,
Greenlife Biotech Co., Green Biotech Co., MehrAsia Biotechnology Company, and
Sadra Biotech Co. The active ingredients of the available microbial pesticides
(registered or in the final process of registration) in Iran consist mainly of bacteria
and fungi.
14.3.1 Bacterial Biopesticides
Four groups of bacteria can typically be utilized as biopesticides. These four types
consist of I) bacteria that produce crystalliferous spore (like Bacillus thuringiensis),
II) obligatory parasitic bacteria (like Bacillus popilliae), III) facultative parasitic
bacteria (like Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and IV) opportunistic parasitic bacteria
(like Serratia marcesens) (Koul 2011).
The most popular bacterium used in Iranian microbial biopesticides is Bacillus
thuringiensis (Moosavi and Zare 2016). Many subspecies and varieties of
B. thuringiensis have been identified globally (Osman et al. 2015). This spore
14 Microbial Biopecticides: Opportunities and Challenges
539