A four-year research project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture has developed a garlic tablet that can treat seeds for up to one acre (0.4 hectares).

The garlic tablets, which cost less than one cent each, are used to mix a solution into which the seeds are then dipped.

Around seventy percent of Bangladesh's 140 million population depend directly on agriculture and the country imports pesticides worth millions of dollars each year.

Experts say that continuous use of chemical pesticides has led to a loss of soil fertility and burdened farmers in one of the world's poorest countries with huge extra costs.

"The garlic tablet is a bio-pesticide and is effecting a revolution by avoiding chemical pesticides for control of pathogens and insects," said Bahadur Meah, head of the Integrated Pest Management Laboratory in the northern Bangladesh city of Mymensingh where the research was conducted.

"Garlic-treated seeds have 95-100 per cent germination as against 56-60 per cent in untreated seeds. It gives rise to healthy seedlings free from diseases and soil pollution by pesticides can be avoided," added Meah.

The project is now providing training for farmers nationwide in how to use the garlic tablets through the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, Meah added.

So far 300 farmers have been trained.

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