Bt.Brinjal Developed by MAHYCO!

[Nethra K Putti]

Bt. BRINJAL

- Bt.Brinjal is a transgenic brinjal created out of inserting a gene (Cry 1 Ac) from the soil bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis into brinjal. the insertion of the gene into the brinjal cell in young cotyledons has been done through are Agrobacterium-mediated vector, along with other genes like promoters, markers etc. this is said to give the brinjal plant resistence against lepidopeteron insects like the brinjal fruit & shoot borer (leucinodesorbonalis) & fruit borer (helicoverparmigera).

Bt.BRINJAL DEVELOPED BY INDIA's MAHYCO :

- Bt.Brinjal is developed in India by MAHYCO (Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company). now the company wants to take up large scale trials with the permission of the GEAC in 2006-07. the importance of this development can be understood from the fact that no GM Brinjal has been released for an advanced stage of field trials in open conditions anywhere in the world & that this is the first time the GEAC could be giving permision for large scale group open for a food crop in India - in a country which has repeatedly proven itself incapable of regulating GM technology & has allowed contamination as a routine affair the proliferation of illegal Bt.Cotton in the country is a good testimony to serious irreversible lapses that could happen at the trials stage. needless, to say, a vegetable, more than other food items goes through very little processing & is directly consumed through cooking & therefore requires great caution in decision-making.

- the information work on Bt.brinjal started in the year 2000. biosafety tests like pollen flow studies, acute oral toxicity etc. were taken with black-crossing programme from 2002. after 2 years of green house evaluation , in 2004, multi-locational field trials were conducted in 11 locations with 5 hybrids (MHB-4, MHB-9, MHB-10,MHB-80, MHB-99 brinjal). this was also the year when ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural Research) took up with the some hybrids under the all india co-ordinated research project on vegetable cultivation in 11 locations. while the ICAR second year by trials continued for these 5 hybrids in 2005, 3 more new hybrids were assessed by the company (MHB-11, MHB-34, MHB-112). MAHYCO has sub-licensed the technology, as part of the USAID, supported, cornell university led by ABSP II Project (consortium of public & private sector institutions) to tamil nadu agricultural university.

Bt.BRINJAL IN INDIA :

india is the centre of origin for eggplant / brinjal. brinjal has been cultivated in india for last 4000 years ago. it is grown all over country , year-round & is one of the most popular vegetables of india. the area under cultivation is estimated to be around 5 lakh hectares . the total production stands at around 82 lakh metric tonnes. it is mainly grown in small plots as a cash crop by farmers. the average yields of brinjal in india to be around 200-350 quintals per hectare. the main growing areas are in the states of Andhra pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa, Tamil nadu, Uttar pradesh & West Bengal.