Over 14 lakh farmers in India, three lakh in Bangladesh and 30,000 in Philippines will get a dependable, cost-effective remedy for the brinjal shoot borer pest (FSB), which damages up to 70% of the crop, with the launch of the genetically modified variety suitable for respective regions.
After experiments, trials, socio-economic, bio-safety and environmental studies for five years, the genetically modified variety with an additional of a gene Cry1Ac from soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is awaiting the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee nod for commercial release, said Tamil Nadu Agriculture University?s centre for plant molecular biology director P Balasubramanian.
Sharing its position with tomato and onion, brinjal is the second most important vegetable after potato in India. Nearly 5.50 lakh hectare land comes under brinjal cultivation in various parts of the country, being a major source of income for over 14 lakh farmers. Studies indicate that during the 4-5 month life span of a brinjal plant, pesticides need to be sprayed at least 50 to 60 times to get a 30 to 40% marketable fruit.
Bt brinjal was first developed by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco). The company donated the technology to public sector institutions in India, Bangladesh and Philippines under the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project-II (ABSP-II) of the Cornell University, which is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The institutional network comprises Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Lucknow, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI and East West Seeds Ltd, Bangladesh) and the Institute of Plant Breeding, Philippines. These institutions developed various open-pollinated Bt brinjal varieties popular in their respective regions. TNAU developed four varieties for Tamil Nadu and UAS developed six for Karnataka, Goa and parts of Maharashtra. The Bangla institutions have developed nine varieties and the Philippines is also working on promising brinjal lines for its farmers, said K Vijayaraghavan, regional co-coordinator (south Asia), ABSP-II. The release in these countries would be simultaneous. Since the Bt brinjals to be made available to the farmers are of open pollinated varieties, the farmers could save seeds for the next crop and hence avoid any corporate monopoly over the seed. Since the seeds would be marketed by public sector institutions and their marketing channels, there would be no profit-pricing to exploit farmers, said director of research at UAS Balasubramanian.
Another scientist at UAS PM Salimath and his team of scientists and researchers 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 potential partner in creating biotech capacity, implementing biosafety regulations and sharing knowledge and state-of-the-art crop biotech applications”.
The trip for this article was sponsored by ABSP-II
