Neem touted as a game-changing environmentally safe pesticide
If not a great deal is ever publicly spoken in Guyana about the application of Neem as a pest control agent in the agricultural sector, the opposite may now be the case in Ghana where one of the country’s experts on crop protection is apparently getting attention with his recommendation that Neem Oil be applied as an organic pest control agent in the country’s agricultural sector.
Stabroek Business has seen a November 23 report originating in Accra, regarding the recommendation by Emile Aman, an expert on crop protection that neem seed power be used as a pesticide repellant. “The neem oil insecticide is often a great solution if insects or mites bother your plants…….. and it is very healthy for crops,” Aman is quoted as saying at a neem Processing Factory in Ghana.
While quite a bit has been written about neem locally, the plant has not been widely touted – at least outside the agriculture sector itself - as an effective pesticide. It has, however, found itself inserted into the considerable body of locally available literature on herbs, particularly in a medicinal context.
Cultivated mainly in tropical climate, different parts of the neem tree are used in various remedial pursuits. The bark, powder, leaves, and oil are useful in various ways. The bark has antiseptic properties that help heal wounds while extracts made from neem bark have antioxidant properties. Neem is also associated with treating worms, loss of appetite and controlling fever. Neem powder, derived from the crushed bark of the tree, is also used to prevent bleeding gums, tooth decay, and bad breath. Some literature also associate neem powder with curing upset stomach.
Here in Guyana neem leaves have come to be associated with brewing tea, with treating eczema, ringworm, and acne and with hair nourishment and dandruff expulsion.
What has apparently attracted some measure of wider attention to Mr. Aman’s recommendation that need be pressed into service as a pest control agent in the agricultural sector is the ongoing controversy about the serious environmental downside associated with the use of chemical pesticides in the agriculture sector globally. Given the fact that, first, neem trees grow in abundance in Guyana and secondly, that the issue of environmental degradation as a consequence of the application of pesticides in the agricultural sector continues to be a talked-about issue here the neem option is probably well worth thinking about.