FSB-resistant eggplant soon

A transgenic eggplant resistant to Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB) will soon be released in the market through a public-private partnership in some Asian countries, including India, Bangladesh and Philippines.

Addressing a press conference organised by the Agriculture Biotechnology Support Project II (ABSP II) and University of Cornell, K Vijayaraghavan, regional coordinator of ABSP II, said the partnerships created under this project address the need to mitigate yield losses due to pest and diseases and environmental factors such as drought and salt.

"Accordingly, Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) has incorporated genes from Bt, a family of toxins derived from soil bacteria, to produce FSB-resistant eggplants and public institutions like Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore, Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad (Karnataka) have been engaged in developing cultivars (a variety of a plant developed from a natural species and maintained under cultivation).

They will soon release seeds at subsidised rates to poor farmers through public distribution channels like co-operative societies.

According to Usha B Zehr, joint director (research), Mahyco, the Bt eggplant variety contains a foreign gene Cry1AC obtained from bacillus thuringiensis. This bacterial gene, introduced genetically into the seeds, protects the plants from FSB pests, the most destructive pest accounting for 50 to 70 per cent of loss in yield.

Also, Bt eggplants require two to five sprays as against 25 sprays for the normal variety, she pointed out. Use of Bt eggplant will reduce the cost of production as there is less usage of pesticides and high yields with more undamaged fruits than non-bioengineered eggplant crops, said K Ramasamy, director, centre for Plant Molecular Biology, TNAU.

When asked about the commercialisation of Bt eggplant, Zehr said that at present successful field trials are being carried out in several regions in the country.

"We have cleared the norms and are awaiting the approval from the Union ministry's department of BioTechnology. We expect the crop to hit the commercial market by the end of 2006," he said.

Mahyco, in association with ABSP II, is also focusing on developing Bt varieties for other crops such as drought and salt tolerant rice, blight resistant potato, tobacco stain virus resistant groundnut, cassava mosaic disease, featherly mottle virus sweet potato, banana, tomato and papaya.