ACS book chapter details GreenLight’s progress in the development of dsRNA solutions

Agricultural pests are responsible for more than $100 billion in global crop losses each year. Meanwhile, the amount of arable land for farming is shrinking and traditional pesticides currently in the market are losing their efficacy. 

To secure a sustainable food supply for future generations, GreenLight is working on RNA-based agricultural solutions that are designed to affect the target pest and limit harm to any non-targeted organisms. In Crop Protection Products for Sustainable Agriculture, a new American Chemical Society book about crop protection innovation, a GreenLight team, led by Ken Narva and Thais Rodrigues,  shares the science behind sprayable dsRNA as a new mode of action plant health product that has shown efficacy comparable to market standards and fits integrated pest management systems. 

This product is intended for large-acre control of the Colorado potato beetle and has been shown to be effective at extremely low use rates. A challenge to wide-scale use of dsRNA is the cost-effective production of large quantities for field applications, which GreenLight has overcome with its cell-free process to manufacture high-quality dsRNA faster, on a larger scale, and much more inexpensively than traditional methods.

Successful registration of this solution will pave the way for additional dsRNA products for agricultural pest control, providing growers with biological alternatives to synthetic insecticides.