"Bio-Gene CEO, Richard Jagger commented: “These are positive and...

"Bio-Gene CEO, Richard Jagger commented: “These are positive and encouraging results that demonstrate the potential of Flavocide™ for control of a major rice pest, particularly in Asia, and provides justification for further evaluation to fine tune dose rates and further demonstrate efficacy in a range of field conditions.

“Rice is the staple food of half of the world's population and more than 90% of the global rice crop is grown in Asia. The Planthopper is a major pest that has been increasingly difficult to control, largely due to its resistance to most insecticides available for use. The unique mode of action of Flavocide™ offers the opportunity to control these resistant strains, where other chemistry is failing. This, along with having no impact on beneficial species, is a real positive towards inclusion in integrated pest management programs, which is of great value to the industry.

“From here we will aim to work with our collaborators to undergo further trials across Asia, and create additional compelling data with the intention of attracting commercial interest from a number of companies that operate within this market,” Mr Jagger added.

“The results also highlight that, like other insecticides, Flavocide™ may have differing effects against different pests which justifies our strategy of evaluating Flavocide™ as widely as possible across pest species both alone and in combination with other insecticides.”