Bangladesh to grow more Bt brinjal

Bangladesh will soon commence large scale production of Bt brinjal. To meet the growing demand for Bt brinjal seeds from the farming community, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) will give the breeder seed to BADC (Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation) which is the Government-owned seed production company for production and commercial supplies of Bt brinjal seeds.

 

In 2013, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) got the go-ahead from its Environment and Forest Ministry, and Agricultural Ministry to commercialise Bt brinjal, the technology for which was developed by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) – a researcher and marketer of hybrid seeds in India. Following this, BARI distributed sapling of four bt brinjal varieties to twenty farmers, who planted these in four different locations on 0.3 acres of land each. Three out of four Bangladeshi farmers who planted Bt brinjal in 2013 have seen significant increase in the marketable produce, says BARI.

 

 “Bt brinjal has been very effective against the key pest – the fruit and shoot borer,” says Mohammad Rafiqul Islam Mondal, Director-General, BARI.

 

“While 15 out of the 20 farmers who planted Bt Brinjal have seen significant increase in the marketable yield; the produce of five farmers were impacted due to disease attack at the seedling phase. But the disease was caused by pests other than the fruit and shoot borer (FSB),” adds Mondal.

 

According to BARI, not even a single fruit was affected by the FSB; in the case of conventional non-Bt brinjal, about 30-70% of the produce is lost due to FSB attack.  Also these 20 farmers did not take even a single spray of pesticide, asserts Mondal. “Traditionally, farmers who plant the conventional non-bt brinjal tend to take 60-180 sprays per season depending on the pest incidence,” he explains.

 

 According to Usha Zehr, Chief Technology Officer, Mahyco, the Bt technology will help farmers take the produce to the market within a shorter time.

 

“In Maharashtra, brinjal farmers on an average take 27 sprays per acre; the number is much higher at about 80 in West Bengal. When the farmer applies pesticide he should not pluck the fruits for at least five days to ensure that there is no residue on the fruit. Whereas when you plant a Bt brinjal there is no waiting time in taking the produce to the market,” explains Zehr.

 

Also, unrestrained use of pesticides may prove hazardous to farmers’ health in the long term. In many cases farmers do not adhere to the five-day window obviously for commercial reasons, she cautions. Hence fruits with pesticide residue can also get sold in the market.

 

“In a Bt brinjal, there is no risk of pesticide residue as farmers don’t have to use them,” says Mondal.       

 

 “We also plan to seek approval for five more varieties after the Rabi season. In October, we will be giving the Bt brinjal seed to 100 farmers to cultivate it on their fields. BARI’s on-farm research division, which will provide training to farmers on this technology, will closely monitor the outcome of this,” said Mondal.  

 

India is, however, yet to accord approval for adoption of Bt technology in brinjal, though Bt cotton has been used in the country for a long time.

 

Brinjal being a food crop, there have been worries about the long-term effects on consumers, if they directly ingest genetically modified food.

 

“The long term impact of genetically modified foods is still unclear. This being a nascent technology, its safety needs to be established over a longer period of time – at least 25 to 30 years” says Bhargavi Rao, Trustee, Environment Support Group-Trust, an NGO which fights the cause of environmental issues. But, BARI which has already commercialised the crop in Bangladesh, counters: “safety tests have been conducted from accredited labs in Bangladesh, thereby confirming that Bt brinjal is safe for human consumption. Bt brinjal is harmless to the beneficial insects and non-target organisms,” explains Mondal. In India too, the technology was given a go-ahead by the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee) based on the positive results established through the field trials conducted by Mahyco. 

 

 While Bangladesh has gone ahead and adopted the Bt Brinjal technology, the commercial release of Bt brinjal in India has been stalled due to a moratorium imposed by the Environment Ministry back in 2010. “While Bangladeshi farmers have benefited from this technology, their Indian counterparts have been denied access, even as bio safety clearance by experts is already in place,” says Mahyco’s Zehr.