Bt brinjal awaits govt nod for release

Margoa: lead a team of visiting journalists from various parts of the country to one of the multi-location field trial sites in the Krishi Vingan Kendra (KVK) at Margoa, Goa. The 112-Go Bt brinjal suitable for Goa and Udupi Gulla variety for Mangalore were planted along the non-Bt similar varieties and another non-BT variety (Aruna) for comparative studies.

The Bt brinjal varieties planted in January were bearing fruits. While shoots and fruits of Bt varieties were free of any pest bores, large number non-Bt varieties shoots and fruits had pest bores and were damaged. However, leaves of both the varieties were equally damaged by tiny sucking pests and insects.

"These pests can be easily controlled by spraying of recommended pesticides. But no spraying of pesticides can kill a FSB, which will hide itself deep in the fruit or shoot. Bt is the only known remedy. The fact that other tiny pests live on these Bt plants is a clear indication of the target-specificity and zero impact on other organisms,” Salimath said.

The cost-benefit analysis by Mahyco experts and the two universities, and the data provided by them, clearly shows there would be significant increase in the marketable yield of Bt brinjal, and substantial increase in farmers income without much increase in cost of production or any change in the farm practices.

The Bt brinjal has undergone all safety trials and socio-economic studies, Mahyco lead biotechnologist Bharat R Char said. There are no indications of any adverse effects, he added. "The study of cooked food and protein estimation indicated that Cry1Ac in the fruits rapidly degraded upon cooking. Also, the Bt protein was undetectable in the cooked fruits,” he said.

Various studies conducted on the variety include germination, weeding, aggressiveness and pollen flow studies, effect on FSB, non-target and beneficial insects, effect on soil micro flora, chemical fingerprinting of Bt and non-Bt variety. These studies were conducted by Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad. Acute toxicity and feeding studies in rats, rabbits and goats were conducted at Advinus Therapeutics, Bangalore. Feeding studies in fish were conducted at Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, effect on health of broiler chickens at Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar, and feeding studies in lactating crossbred dairy cows at GB Pant University.

According to Bhagirath Choudhary from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agro-biotech Applications (ISAAA), “Many other developing countries, especially in Asia and Africa, foresee India as a...