The use of neem by farmers in the Dominican Republic

In 1987 the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and the Institute Politecnico Loyola started a joint project to promote and disseminate the use of local, homemade insecticides from neem by small-scale vegetable farmers in the Dominican Republic. Since then more than 400,000 neem trees have been planted in the country. HPLC analysis of the first harvests shows average contents of azadirachtin in the seeds of 4-5 mg/g. In more than 60 field trials simple aqueous seed extracts proved to be effective against the most important pests of beans, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, maize, melon, okra, and tomato. Some results will be presented here. Of special interest was the good controlling effect of neem against the white-fly Bemisia tabaci, as this pest has become resistant against a broad range of synthetic insecticides. The project is cooperating closely with a group of 60 pilot farmers, who visited once a week and whose experiences with neem are regularly evaluated. They use home-made aqueous neem extracts prepared in barrels with a specially designed wire mesh filter. The method is easy and is accepted by the farmers. Socioeconomic data demonstrate that the use of neem extracts is profitable for the farmers.