Starting in 2000, AVRDC and partners in South Asia developed an integrated pest management strategy to reduce the huge problem of pesticide misuse to control the eggplant fruit and shoot borer. An inexpensive, environmentally safe sex pheromone trap was a key part of the strategy. Small-scale entrepreneurs saw a business opportunity, tried out different designs and with competition the price of traps went down.

Eight years later, nine companies were making a variety of traps, the price has dropped from US $1 to US $0.10 per trap, and thousands of farmers can afford to use more traps more often. The new IPM technology reduced pesticide use in eggplant by 65–75% in Bangladesh and India and farmers increased their net income by 60%.

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