During the era of green revolution, agrochemicals were used extensively to increase food production. By the sixties and seventies, the fall out of excessive use of chemical insecticides was evidently seen leading to environmental pollution, contamination of food and water and development of resistance to chemical pesticides in several pests which became major concerns in agricultural production and sustainable pest management. To address these problems and to search for alternative pest management strategies, the AICRP on Biological Control of crop pests and weeds was initiated with 13 cooperating centres during 1977 to develop eco – friendly biological control methods for the sustainable management of pests under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. The headquarters of the AICRP on Biological Control of Crop Pests and Weeds was located initially at IIHR, Bengaluru and later at the Project Directorate of Biological Control (PDBC) / later upgraded to National Bureau of Agricultural Important Insects (NBAII)/ National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR). At present, NBAIR as the AICRP-BC coordinating cell coordinates the biological control work of our country through 21 SAU based centres, 10 ICAR institute-based centres and 2 central universities centres located in different agroclimatic zones.

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