Newton Fund - Reduced pesticide contamination of groundwater

农药流失导致的供水污染是巴西的一个主要问题。这种情况在棉花种植区尤为严重，因为大量的杀虫剂被用来对付棉铃虫等害虫。此外，所需杀虫剂的费用使棉花种植面积减少了一半，农民因此损失了收入，特别是在该国较贫穷的东北部。该项目汇集了英国和巴西的商业和学术合作伙伴，旨在开发一种诱杀技术，以控制棉铃象鼻虫和其他害虫。它含有一种信息素来吸引特定的目标害虫，并含有少量的杀虫剂或生物杀虫剂来杀死害虫。这些装置将由新型生物可降解聚合物制成，因此它们制造和部署简单、廉价，而且不需要在季节结束时收集。这些设备将在巴西进行现场测试，并由巴西合作伙伴进行注册。它们的使用将大大减少棉花上的杀虫剂用量，减少地下水污染，更好和更便宜地控制害虫，改善棉花种植者的生计。

Contamination of water supplies due to pesticide run-off is a major problem in Brazil. This is particularly severein cotton-growing areas because of the large amounts of pesticide used against insect pests such as the bollweevil. Furthermore, the cost of pesticides required has lead to a halving of the area of cotton grown with aconsequent loss of income for farmers, particularly in the poorer North East of the country. This project bringstogether UK and Brazilian commercial and academic partners with the aim of developing a lure-and-killtechnology for control of boll weevil and other pests. This contains a pheromone to attract specifically thetarget pest and a low loading of insecticide or biopesticide to kill it. The devices will be constructed of novelbiodegradable polymers so that they are simple and cheap to manufacture and deploy and do not need to becollected in at the end of the season. The devices will be field tested in Brazil and registered by the Brazilianpartners. Their use should greatly reduce the amount of insecticide applied to cotton and give reducedcontamination of groundwater, better and cheaper pest control and improved livelihoods for cotton growers.