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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:18:37 +0100
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This is from Bhagirath Choudhary. I am an agricultural researcher working as a national coordinator of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)- a not for profit organization with biotech information nodes (BICs) in around 25 developing countries including the one in India. Ever since the Bt brinjal project was declared safe and recommended for commercial release by India's Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in October 2009, there has been a much hue and cry about every aspect of this indigenous project undertaken in the true spirit of the public private partnership in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines. I hope the participants of this conference would pay a little attention to why Bt brinjal project was undertaken and how would it help and benefit 1.4 million small brinjal farmers and more than a billion consumers of India, Bangladesh and the Philippines.  



SELECTION OF BRINJAL FOR GENETIC MODIFICATION: Brinjal is a very important common man’s vegetable in India. A total of 1.4 million small, marginal and resource-poor farmers grow brinjal on 550,000 hectares annually of which 50% or more is already planted with hybrids. Brinjal is prone to attack by many insect-pests, and diseases; by far the most important of which is the fruit and shoot borer (FSB), for which resistance has not been identified and thus it causes significant losses of up to 60 to 70% in commercial plantings. FSB damages brinjal in two ways. First, it infests young shoots which limits the ability of plants to produce healthy fruit bearing shoots, thereby reducing potential yield. Secondly, and more importantly, it bores into fruits making them unmarketable at harvest - it is this decrease in marketable yield, as opposed to total yield, that is the most important yield loss caused by FSB. Due to the fact that FSB larvae remain concealed within shoots and fruits, insecticide applications, although numerous, are ineffective. Farmers usually spray twice a week, applying 15 to 40 insecticide sprays, or more, in one season depending on infestation levels. The decision of farmers to spray is influenced more by subjective assessment of visual presence of FSB rather than guided by the more objective science-based methodology of economic threshold levels. This reliance on subjective assessment of visual presence leads to gross over-spraying with insecticides, higher insecticide residues, and unnecessary increase in the farmers’ exposure to insecticides. On average, 4.6 kg of active ingredient of insecticide per hectare per season is applied on brinjal at a cost of Rs 12,000 per hectare; this is the highest quantity applied to any vegetable crop in India with the exception of chilli. To illustrate the importance of FSB, of the 15 recommended insecticides by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) for brinjal more than half, or eight are prescribed only for FSB. Typically, farmers indiscriminately apply a cocktail of insecticides on brinjal, including insecticides such as monocrotophos that are restricted or banned for use on vegetable crops. In a survey of pesticide residues in vegetable crops taken at the farm gate and markets from 1999 to 2003 confirmed that of the 3,043 samples, two-thirds were found to have pesticide residues, but these were within accepted tolerances, whereas 9% contained residues above the minimum recommended levels. The increasing amount of insecticide residues in vegetables and fruits has been a major concern to consumers who currently have no choice except to buy brinjals with high insecticide residues, but despite the application of many insecticides the brinjal fruits sold in the market are still of inferior quality, infested with larvae of FSB.



IMPACT OF Bt BRINJAL: Indian company Mahyco in collaboration with three public sector institutions namely the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad; the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore; and the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi have indigenously developed Bt brinjal between 2000 to 2009. It has undergone a rigorous science-based regulatory approval process in India with the compliance of two dozens of regulatory permits being issued by Indian regulatory authorities from 2000 to 2009. Studies on food and feed safety, including toxicity and allergenicity tests, have been conducted on rats, rabbits, fish, chickens, goats and cows; these studies have confirmed that Bt brinjal is as safe as its non-Bt counterpart. Similarly, environmental impact assessments to study germination, pollen flow, invasiveness, aggressiveness and weediness, and effect on non-target organisms were completed, and it was confirmed that Bt brinjal behaves in a similar way to its non-Bt counterparts. Agronomic studies showed a significantly lower number of FSB larvae on Bt brinjal, 0-20 larvae, as compared to 3.5-80 larvae on the non-Bt counterpart. Multi-location research trials confirmed that insecticide requirement for Bt brinjal hybrids was on average 80% less than for the non-Bt counterpart for the control of FSB; this translated into a 42% reduction in total insecticides used for control of all insect-pests in Bt brinjal versus the control. As a result of the effective control of FSB, Bt brinjal’s average marketable yield increased by 100% over its non-Bt counterpart hybrids, 116% over popular conventional hybrids and 166% over popular open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) of brinjal. Thus the studies mostly conducted by independent public sector institutions and submitted to the regulatory authorities confirm that Bt brinjal offers the opportunity to simultaneously provide effective control of the most important pest of brinjal, FSB, decrease insecticides for this important insect-pest by 80%, and more than double the yield over conventional hybrids and open-pollinated varieties, thereby providing significant advantages for farmers and consumers alike. At the national level it can thus contribute to food safety and security and to sustainability. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF Bt BRINJAL PROJECT: Bt brinjal (both hybrids and varieties) is of particular interest for three reasons. Firstly, it is likely to be the first biotech vegetable crop commercialized in India, following the unparalleled success of the commercialization of Bt cotton which occupies more than 90% of area in 2011 in India. Secondly, Bt brinjal technology has been generously donated by its private sector developer, Mahyco, to public sector institutes in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines for incorporation in open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) of brinjal for the use of small resource-poor farmers. This royalty-free donation of Bt brinjal event EE-1 to public sector institutions is one of the true examples of private sector philanthropy and public private partnership (PPP) to advance GM crops in developing countries. Thirdly, sharing of knowledge and experience of the regulation process for Bt brinjal in India could greatly simplify and lighten the regulatory burden in Bangladesh and the Philippines by eliminating duplication of the significant effort already expended by India, thereby contributing to the important goal of harmonizing regulations between countries.



For details of Bt brinjal project, I would like participants to refer to ISAAA Brief “the Development and Regulation of Bt Brinjal in India (Eggplant/Aubergine)” that provides a comprehensive review of all aspects of the cultivation, development and regulation of Bt brinjal, which is available at: http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/38/download/isaaa-brief-38-2009.pdf (2.2. MB).



Bhagirath Choudhary

National Coordinator, ISAAA South Asia Office 

International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)

National Agricultural Science Center (NASC) Complex, 

DPS Marg

New Delhi-110012, 

India

Tel: +91-11-32472302

Fax: +91-11-25841294

Email: b.choudhary (at) cgiar.org

www.isaaa.org/india 



[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]



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