Protest, agitation and political activism are the metaphors which usually come in one's mind on the very mention of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), but it is also known for cutting-edge research in various fields of science and technology. Recently, its prestigious School of Biotechnology has devised a methodology by which herbicides used in agriculture can be prepared simply by the use of water instead of organic solvents.
Herbicides, used to kill unwanted plants or weeds among the crops, is widely used in the field of agriculture. However, its preparation requires variety of organic solvents in large volumes that are used to remove or filter-out impurities. These organic solvents are not only costly but are also the cause of pollution to the environment. The impurities once dissolved in organic solvents are hard to separate and causes harm to environment when discharged untreated.
Dr BS Balaji , Associate Professor at JNU's School of Biotechnology, who first conceive and worked on the idea of using water in herbicide preparation instead of organic solvent, said that in his process the waste products are washed away and removed using water instead of organic solvent. Also, the whole process is more pollution free. He was assisted in his work by one of his student Neha Dalal, who was then student of MSc Biotechnology, now a researcher at IIT-Bombay.
"Approximately five times more volume of organic solvents is required as compared to water in the preparation of same amount of herbicide. Using water is not only cost effective measure but also the whole process is pollution free as compared to using organic solvent," said Dr BS Balaji.
"25 litres of water will cost maximum 60 rupees while same amount of organic solvent would cost around Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000," he said. This would highly reduce the cost of herbicide production thus making it available to the farmers at much cheaper rate. However, what is required is its large scale production at industrial level.
Balaji told that he has applied for "provisional patent" at the "Indian Patent Office.
" and meanwhile is also trying to scale up with industries for its large scale commercial production.
"We have to take it from lab to industry," he added.
Balaji told that he has applied for "provisional patent" at the "Indian Patent Office" and meanwhile is also trying to scale up with industries for its large scale commercial production. "We have to take it from lab to industry," he added.