Genetically modified brinjal, or Bt brinjal, the first food crop in India to get GEAC approval, is now just one step away from the farmers? fields and then our dining tables. Under development since 2000, by Mahyco India and its public sector partners, Bt brinjal has undergone rigorous, and science-based regulatory approval process before reaching at the doorstep of the Union environment ministry. The ministry nod is eagerly awaited not only by the Indian agriculture scientists and farmers but also by those in Bangladesh and Philippines, the partner countries in the USAID-assisted Agri-Biotechnology Support Project -II (ABSP-II).
GEAC has granted, according to reports, technical approval to the event in which the cry1Ac gene of the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is inserted into a particular chromosome of the brinjal plant that enables it to resist the attack of the fruit and shoot borer pest, that destroys almost 60% of the crop.
This technology developed by the US multinational Monsanto was gifted to the resource poor farmers of Asia through Mahyco India and ABSP-II. In India, Mahyco partnered with the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore, the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka and the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi. These three public sector institutions have transferred locally suitable high-yielding superior varieties of brinjal into Bt brinjal varieties. They have also produced large quantities of seeds for release to the farmers when the environment ministry approves that.Varieties are not hybrids and farmers will be able to save the seeds for the next crop without necessarily buying the seeds again. However, for the hybrids developed by Mahyco, the farmers will have to buy the seeds for each crop for the full benefits of Bt. The approval of Bt brinjal might expedite the development process of at least 11 other popular varieties of vegetables and fruits under various stages of trials and experiments.
Progressive farmers, encouraged by the success of Bt cotton, are keen to have Bt brinjal released to them for commercial cultivation.
?joseph.vackayil@expressindia.com
