Philippine governmant approves Bt eggplant for commercial cultivation

The long wait has finally ended with the approval of commercial cultivation of the borer-resistant Bt Eggplant (Event EE-1) in the Philippines on October 18, 2022.

Pursuant to the DOST-DA-DENR-DOH-DILG Joint Department Circular (JDC) No. 1, Series of 2021, the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture granted the ″Biosafety Permit for Commercial Propagation (No. 22-001 Propa)″ of Bt Eggplant (Event EE-1) to the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

This regulatory approval came after strict and comprehensive biosafety evaluations conducted by the Joint Assessment Group comprised of representatives from Competent National Authorities-Biosafety Committees, and the certification of the Event EE-1 as a Plant Incorporated Protectant (Group 11A Insecticide) by the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority. Prior to this approval for commercial propagation, the DA-BPI also approved Bt eggplant for direct use as food, feed, or for processing (21-078FFP) on July 21, 2021, affirming its safety for consumption.

Bt eggplant contains a natural protein from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, making it resistant to the crop’s most devastating insect pest – the eggplant fruit and shoot borer (EFSB). This Bt protein is highly specific to EFSB larvae and is safe for humans, animals, and other non-target arthropods.

Various scientific evidence has demonstrated the safety of Bt eggplants not only for consumption but also for the environment. A 2016 study conducted in the Philippines on the impact of Bt eggplants to non-target arthropods revealed that eggplant varieties containing the event EE-1 are unlikely to pose greater risks to the environment when cultivated in open fields, as compared to their non-Bt eggplant counterparts. The study also suggested that Bt eggplant can be an integral component of Integrated Pest Management program particularly of EFSB, while dramatically reducing the dependence on conventional insecticides.

Ex-ante socio-economic studies also conducted in the Philippines estimated that the cultivation of Bt eggplants will incur lower production costs and ultimately lead to up to three-fold higher net farm incomes due to the combined effects of significantly reduced pesticide use and increased marketable fruit yields.

With this landmark regulatory milestone, the Philippines becomes the second country in the world, after Bangladesh, to allow the commercial propagation of borer-resistant Bt eggplant.

″The biosafety approval for commercial propagation allows us to scale up our operations and ensure the availability of the Bt eggplant seeds in the coming years″, said Dr. Lourdes Taylo, the current lead of the Bt Eggplant Project in the Philippines.

Priority activities following the biosafety approval for commercial propagation of Bt Eggplant will include seed production, varietal registration, and farm demonstrations. Concurrent to the pilot planting activities, an extensive growers’ education program will also be launched as part of the product stewardship activities within the following year.

The Bt Eggplant Project in the Philippines started in 2003 as a public-private partnership engagement among the Institute of Plant Breeding of UPLB, Mahyco Pvt Ltd, and Cornell University with funding support from USAID (through the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II and Feed the Future Eggplant Improvement Project), Department of Agriculture-Biotechnology Program Office, and Bureau of Agriculture Research. This project was also supported by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Science, and the UPLB Foundation Inc.